Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

May Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency” by Mahmood Mamdani. London Review of Books. March 8, 2007.

The Moral Vocabulary Of Violence, David L. G. Rice

Human Rights & Human Welfare

What is at stake in labeling a particular incidence of large-scale violence “genocide”? Mahmood Mamdani rightly argues that “genocide” is an insufficient description of the conflict in Darfur. I would suggest that the problematic nature of that terminology goes back to its inception after World War II. Activists have inherited the concept of “genocide” from a particular historical moment. Now, “ genocide” carries unique moral weight in the discourse of international politics. When violence against civilians has been widely accepted as a necessary outcome of the preservation of peace, activists find it necessary to imagine a worse evil than the …

The Return Of Moral Equivalence, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

During the latter stages of the Cold War, one school of ethical analysis, ultimately labeled as “moral equivalence” by the late Jeane Kirkpatrick, measured Western liberal democracies against utopian standards in a radical critique which redefined the political discourse, erasing distinctions between the Soviet Union and its satellites on the one hand and the United States and its allies on the other.

Missing The Point, Colin Thomas-Jensen

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“What would happen if we thought of Darfur as we do of Iraq, as a place with a history and politics—a messy politics of insurgency and counterinsurgency?” (§4). This is the most telling question posed by Professor Mahmood Mamdani in “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency.” The implication is that the growing public demand for strong international action—military or otherwise—to halt the atrocities in Darfur is somehow unwarranted because people have failed to understand that the systematic crimes against humanity committed against civilians in Darfur (and indeed Iraq) are an inevitability of “the messy politics of insurgency and …

Politics Of Naming And Politics Of Responsibility, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Mahmood Mamdani is right to complain that the American—and international—public is unaware of the political complexity of the Darfur conflict. He is also right to point out that selective or inconsistent uses of the terms “genocide,” “civil war,” and “insurgency” can mask covert, or even overt, political agendas. His comparison of Darfur to Iraq is telling. And he is right to point out that even with the best of humanitarian intentions, the presentation of a simplified version of Darfur, in which “Arabs” persecute “Africans,” can play into the “war on terror,” insofar as, in the minds of at least some …

Passover And Jonathan Pollard, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Human Rights And The War On Terror: Complete 2005 - 2007 Topical Research Digest, Jack Donnelly, Simon Amajuru, Susannah Compton, Robin Davey, Syd Dillard, Amanda Donahoe, Charles Hess, Sydney Fisher, Kelley Laird, Victoria Lowdon, Chris Maggard, Alexandra Nichols, Travis Ning, Toni Panetta, Greg Sanders, James Smithwick, Angela Woolliams, Chris Saeger, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Eric Dibbern, David Gillespie, Latife Bulur, Katie Friesen, Arika Long, Arianna Nowakowski, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“9/11 changed everything.” Not really. In fact, there has been far more continuity than change over the past six years in both international and domestic politics. Nonetheless, human rights often have been harmed—although not by terrorism but by “the war on terror.”

The Military Commissions Act, Habeas Corpus, And The Geneva Conventions, Curtis A. Bradley

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

We Were Allies Once: Lessons Of D Day, 1944, Nigel Hamilton

New England Journal of Public Policy

Nigel Hamilton swivels the century around the pivot of the massive cooperation and collaboration between the United States and its allies during World War II. In the early years, European and British troops suffered a series of discouraging defeats by the Nazis, and then when the United States entered the war the great collaboration among the allies was instrumental in achieving victory in Europe. This joint effort of nations continued for a time with such institutions as the UN and NATO and other international bodies. The war in Iraq ruptured the alliance. American unilateralism has distinguished most of the debacle …

Conflicts Diamonds: U.S. Responsibility And Response, Edward R. Fluet

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will examine U.S. and international efforts to combat the trade in conflict diamonds. Specifically, this article will detail their failures and examine the need for U.S. backed legislation to prevent the conflict diamond trade more effectively. This article proceeds as follows: Part I will examine the effect of the conflict diamond trade on those caught in the grip of civil war and terrorism. Part II will analyze international efforts to curtail conflict diamonds trade, specifically examining international support of the Kimberley Process. Part III and IV will examine the United States'efforts to regulate conflict diamonds and the inherent …

Sounds Of Silence, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Countering Terrorism: From Wigged Judges To Helmeted Soldiers - Legal Perspectives On America's Counter-Terrorism Responses, Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article aims to evaluate the international legal perspectives attendant to U.S. counter-terrorism measures and policy and the attendant strictures an implications. Part II commences by grappling with the uneasy relationship that legal and political complexities have foisted on the UN's ability to address terrorism and the difficult issue of the definition of terrorism. Within the context of this part, the Article also addresses the two dominant counter-terrorism paradigms-law enforcement and conflict management. Part III oves on to evaluate the law enforcement paradigm which treats terrorism as a crime engaging domestic law enforcement. This part offers a discussion of the …

Human Rights And The War On Terror: Introduction, Jack Donnelly

Human Rights & Human Welfare

War rarely is good for human rights. The decision of the United States to launch a “global war on terror” in response to the suicide airplane bombings in New York and Washington has had predictably negative human rights consequences. In combating a tiny network of violent political extremists, human rights have in various ways, both intentional and unintentional, been restricted, infringed, violated, ignored, and trampled in many countries, sometimes severely.

Congressional Authorization And The War On Terrorism, Curtis A. Bradley, Jack L. Goldsmith

Faculty Scholarship

This Article presents a framework for interpreting Congress's September 18, 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), the central statutory enactment related to the war on terrorism. Although both constitutional theory and constitutional practice suggest that the validity of presidential wartime actions depends to a significant degree on their relationship to congressional authorization, the meaning and implications of the AUMF have received little attention in the academic debates over the war on terrorism. The framework presented in this Article builds on the analysis in the Supreme Court's plurality opinion in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, which devoted significant attention to the …

Military Detention And The Judiciary: Al Qaeda, The Kkk And Supra-State Law, Wayne Mccormack

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article touches on the choice of whether to use the language and tools of war or the language and tools of law enforcement in responding to terrorism. The principal focus, however, is on the limited issue of judicial review and military detentions. The Article reviews the case law created on this subject during the Civil War and World War II. Historical considerations are found by the author to be relevant and helpful in solving the incoherency of current legal responses to terrorism. For instance, indefinite military detention is not coherent with either the international law concept of violations of …

It's Time To Be Fair To Jonathan Pollard, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Padraig O'Malley

New England Journal of Public Policy

In this and the next issue of the New England Journal of Public Policy we will look at issues of war in the twentieth century; at how the nature and purpose of war have changed; at how evil stalks the human condition, how we forget, most likely because we want to forget. Some truths are too terrible to bear. They require us to ask questions of ourselves that our psyches are not equipped to answer and so they close down for the sake of our survival. Had we slaughtered dumb animals in the manner in which we slaughtered ourselves during …

The Costs Of Covert Warfare: Airpower, Drugs, And Warlords In The Conduct Of U.S Foreign Policy, Alfred W. Mccoy

New England Journal of Public Policy

Over the last fifty years the United States has fought four covert wars by using a unique combination of special operations and airpower as a substitute for regular ground troops. Such covert wars are removed from Congressional oversight and conventional diplomacy. Their battlegrounds become the loci of political instability. In highland Asia, while these covert wars are being fought, CIA protection transforms tribal warlords into powerful drug lords linked to international markets. Arguably, every nation needs an intelligence service to warn of future dangers. But should this nation have the right, under U.S. or international law, to conduct its foreign …

Authorization To Kill Terrorist Leaders And Those Who Harbor Them: An International Analysis Of Defensive Assassination, Brenda L. Godfrey

San Diego International Law Journal

The purpose of this Comment is to explore the legal justification for the targeted killing of a terrorist leader as an act of self-defense. In particular, the focus of this Comment will be on the interpretation of the self-defense doctrine under customary international law and the United Nations Charter. First, this Comment will examine the background and common definitions of assassination. Then, the focus will shift to an evaluation of the relevant customary international law and the Caroline doctrine. Next, this Comment will analyze the United Nations Charter, Article 51 as it relates to a claim of self-defense in response …

International Law And The Pre-Emptive Use Of Force: Afghanistan, Al-Qaida, And Iraq, Christopher Greenwood

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article will review the legal framework on the use of force and suggest that there are cases in which the use of "preemptive force" may be justified, provided that certain important conditions are satisfied. Parts III and IV will then apply this analysis to the two cases that have focused attention on the whole issue of preemptive action, namely, the threat from international terrorism (Part III) and the situation in Iraq (Part IV). The writer's conclusions are summarized in Part V.

The Revolution In Military Legal Affairs : Air Force Legal Professionals In 21 St Century Conflicts, Charles J. Dunlap Jr.

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trends. Spillover: Is United States Government Military Aid To Colombia All Wet?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses spillover of conflicts in Colombia into surrounding countries as related to United States government military aid.

Terrorism: A Global Phenomenon Mandating A Unified International Response, Jacqueline Ann Carberry

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

No abstract provided.

Pollard Treated Unfairly, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Why Clinton Should Pardon Pollard – Now, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Ax-Grinding Politics Leads To Unequal Justice, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trends. A Strategic Defense Initiative Against Biological Warfare: Sense? Nonsense? Mal Vu, Mal Dit?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) that was initiated by United States (US) President Ronald Reagan during his first term.

Pollard And Priorities, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Long Overdue, Kenneth Lasson

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Military Justice: From Oxymoron To Aspiration, Janet Walker

Osgoode Hall Law Journal

The mandate for Charter-based judicial review of military law is now in its second decade. Comparative analysis of the relationship between military law and the civilian judiciary in common law countries reveals that Canadian courts benefitting from this mandate are so placed within the constitutional structure as to be uniquely able to engage in substantive review of the adherence to the principles of fundamental justice by Canadian courts martial. Accordingly, the question of the jurisdiction of military tribunals which has formed the focal point internationally for judicial review is of passing significance in Canada. The yet critical issues of civilian …