International Law and New Wars

Christine Chinkin · Mary Kaldor

Apr 2017 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the contemporary experience of what are known as 'new wars' - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.

About the author

Christine Chinkin is Emerita Professor of International Law and Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and William Cook overseas faculty member of the University of Michigan Law School. She is a leading expert on international law and human rights law, especially the international human rights of women.

Mary Kaldor is Professor of Global Governance and Director of the Civil Society and Human Security Research Unit at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and CEO of the DFID-funded Justice and Security Research Programme. Her areas of research include European security, global civil society, new wars and human security.