News
Why it takes a missile to shoot down a balloon made of Saran wrap.
Ordinary Russians Want Us to Freeze to Death
What is Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine?
Wagner Group Operations in Africa
U.S. designates Russian firm Wagner Group as criminal organization
Assignment
Finish material from last class.
One of the major legal questions raised by the Ukraine war is whether Russian soldiers are committing war crimes. We need to review the law of war before we turn to the Ukraine war. This is also critical information for our later discussion of cyberwar.
First, watch this short video: Rules of war (in a nutshell)
Then read Chapter 9.
Slides – Chapter 9 – final
The law of war is operationalized in The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Land Warfare (2019). (Scan this, but you do not need to read it in detail.) This document incorporates the laws of war into the military standards for warfare, which are then subject to enforcement through the Uniform Code of Military Justice (2019). While does not make them general law, as would a statute, it does make them binding on the military. Read Chapter 1 of The Commander’s Handbook on the Law of Land Warfare (2019) to CLASSES OF PERSONS, p. 1-11. Study the chart on p. 1-6 that summarizes the basic principles. Also, read the short supplementary materials for Chapters 8 and 9 that I have emailed you. These came out after the supplement was published.
Resources