Search: battlefield robots
10 Aug Citizenship and the Olympics: The End of Surrogate Warfare
...in stride. Why the change? The Olympics used to be a form of surrogate warfare. If we couldn’t beat the Soviets on the battlefield, we could best them in the rink. Athletes were soldiers, of a sort. As such, their nationality was serious stuff. For the most part states don’t stand in an adversarial posture any more. Their teams may, but more now in the way of the Phillies and the Mets, competitive but a healthy way. This should be counted as another welcome departure from the pathologies of Westphalia....01 Aug Michael Lewis’ Response to Gabor Rona on Targeted Killing
...ever change it will fundamentally alter how IHL regulates the use of such weapons. But we are a long way from having “untethered” drones loosed on the battlefield and I have found no appetite for such a development amongst operational military commanders. However this “stupidity” does not change the fact that, as a weapons system, drones are capable of more accurately discriminating between civilians and legitimately targetable individuals than any other weapons system we currently possess. This is because drones allow for a dispassionate assessment of each weapon employment by...13 Jul Weekly News Wrap: Monday, July 13, 2015
...released on Friday. Colombia pledged on Sunday to de-escalate military action against leftist guerrillas if the rebels uphold their unilateral ceasefire, providing a breakthrough in peace talks that had been threatened by an escalation of battlefield violence. U.S.-led forces conducted 16 air strikes in Syria and 11 more in Iraq against Islamic State forces on Saturday, the Combined Joint Task Force leading the air operations said on Sunday. UN/World The United Nations said it expects an unconditional week-long humanitarian pause in the fighting in Yemen to start on Friday to...
16 May Symposium on Systemic Racism and Sexism in Legal Academia: The Promise of Victory
...For racialised and gendered scholars, the emotional labour in simply being, let alone belonging, is punishing. On the battlefield, we need allies, creativity, resilience, and, perhaps most of all, we need victories. This symposium is a victory. It was hard fought, with various intervening factors delaying its release and altering its appearance. I tip my hat to those who spoke and do not judge those who did not. I also acknowledge those who, out of fear of reprisals, withdrew their submissions at later stages. There is neither harm nor disappointment....10 Oct Letter from Iraq
...now have more combat experience than any Marines in the history of our Corps…. Biggest Hassle — High-ranking visitors. More disruptive to work than a rocket attack. VIPs demand briefs and “battlefield” tours (we take them to quiet sections of Fallujah, which is plenty scary for them). Our briefs and commentary seem to have no effect on their preconceived notions of what’s going on in Iraq. Their trips allow them to say that they’ve been to Fallujah, which gives them an unfortunate degree of credibility in perpetuating their fantasies about...15 Nov The Preventive Detention Debate Under the Democrats
...trial. Question is on what basis in an environment that claims to act under the “charge them or let them go.” One is simply to say, well, it’s down to less than twenty, so that’s pretty darn good! Another rationale on which to hold people, not inconsistent with the earlier one, is to say, well, we are in this situation because the Bush administration tortured people, messed up the evidence, didn’t collect it properly on the battlefield, etc. – but we have to hold them because of the security risk....
21 Jan GCIII Commentary: Prisoners of War Remittances–Financial Challenges of Sanctions and Conversion Rates
[Chanel Chauvet earned her Master of Laws in International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. She also holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Georgia School of Law. This is a post in our joint blog symposium with ICRC’s Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog exploring the new ICRC Commentary on the Third Geneva Convention ( GCIII Commentary ).] This post will explore the challenges of armed conflict that extend beyond the battlefield and into detention camps for many prisoners...25 Sep Bobby Chesney Responds to My Post
...an IHL scholar to see the problems with that argument. IHL applies only if conflict is sufficiently intense and organized to qualify as a NIAC. Period. There is no “weak domestic law” exception to that fundamental requirement. And even if a NIAC exists, IHL applies to individuals located outside the battlefield only if they are members of an organization involved in that NIAC or are directly participating in hostilities there. The real question, in short, is whether individuals in the U.S. accused solely of materially supporting terrorism can be considered...26 Jul Use of Hearsay Evidence in Military Commissions
...security…. The draft measure describes court-martial procedure as “not practicable in trying enemy combatants” because doing so would “require the government to share classified information” and would exclude “hearsay evidence determined to be probative and reliable…. Nor does the bill adhere to the military’s rules for the admissibility of evidence and witnesses at trial statements because “the United States cannot safely require members of the armed forces to gather evidence on the battlefield as though they were police officers,” the proposal says. The draft bill specifies that no matter how...24 Mar Weekly News Wrap: Tuesday, March 24, 2015
...military experts to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group. The United States and its allies targeted Islamic State in nine air strikes in Iraq and Syria in the latest round of daily attacks on the militants, the Combined Joint Task Force said on Sunday. Praised as a model of Arab Spring progress, Tunisia has finally been drawn onto the global jihadi battlefield after Islamist militants gunned down foreign tourists in a brazen assault at the heart of the capital. The Lebanese military is struggling to...