scholarly journals Impact of Armed Conflicts on the State of Ecological Security

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-39
Author(s):  
Adam Paweł Olechowski
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Ecological Security ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Humanitarian Crises

Abstract Contemporary armed conflicts, although not as global in scope as the two world wars in the 20th century, create serious threats in many dimensions. One of the areas of their influence is the natural environment. In fact every armed conflict, also one that takes place in a relatively small territory, causes a number of negative consequences in the natural environment. These, in turn, may have further consequences. Apart from the damage caused by military operations, accompanying phenomena appear on a large scale. In recent years, a series of armed conflicts in Africa and West Asia resulted in huge migrations of millions of people. In addition to the resulting humanitarian crises, large-scale environmental problems are observed. Thus, it clearly shows that even potentially minor military conflicts can lead to serious disturbances of the natural environment. The author shows the various consequences of armed conflicts for the natural environment over the last half century.

The Protection of the Environment in Armed Conflict: Legal Obligations in the Absence of Specific Rules

2013 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Fleck
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
General Rule ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Post Conflict

While a general rule of ‘eco-protection’ in armed conflict may be derived from the basic principles of distinction, proportionality, avoidance of unnecessary suffering and humanity, international humanitarian law provides little by way of more specific rules for the protection of the natural environment except for in extreme situations that can rarely be expected to occur. Nevertheless, opinio juris has changed since the adoption of pertinent instruments in 1977. This development needs to be balanced against a still prevailing general reluctance to accept specific ecological obligations and procedures in military operations. Thus a detailed evaluation of planning and decision-making processes appears necessary. Revisiting the San Remo Manual on International Law Applicable to Armed Conflicts at Sea and the ICRC Study on Customary International Humanitarian Law, this article argues that certain qualifications made in these documents relating to requirements of ‘imperative military necessity’ are to be assessed in the light of their specific implications and should be used with caution. Furthermore, it is suggested that pertinent consequences of the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles on the Effects of Armed Conflicts on Treaties deserve further study. To this end, interdisciplinary case studies should be conducted to support fact-oriented evaluations of military requirements, ecological assessments and political effects post-conflict, rather than insisting on thresholds for legal regulation that already appeared to be escapist decades ago and which may prove counter-productive in the years to come. New activities aimed at protecting the natural environment in armed conflict should focus on a reaffirmation of existing rules and their effective implementation.

‘The Drug of War’ – a historical review of the use of Ketamine in military conflicts

2009 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
S J Mercer
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Anaesthetic Agent ◽  
Historical Review ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Military Conflicts

AbstractAnaesthesia for surgery during armed conflict was traditionally based on simple and reliable techniques. These often required a minimum of equipment and drugs while ensuring rapid and safe patient recovery. Ketamine, which first became available in Britain in the 1970s, was thought to offer certain favorable characteristics for use as a military anaesthetic agent. This article discusses the use of ketamine in many of the major armed conflicts that have occurred since its introduction. It also catalogues the methods used by anaesthetists at the time and their opinions of the drug’s success.

9 Protection of the Natural Environment

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Payne Cymie R
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Customary Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Cultural Elements ◽  
International Law Commission

This chapter focuses on international humanitarian law’s (IHL) limitations on warfare to protect the natural environment from extremely serious damage and to prevent unnecessary or wanton harm. IHL protection of the environment developed from the principle of protection of civilians, and it has similar motives and goals. The chapter then describes a legal regime that is undergoing development. The International Law Commission (ILC) termed the overall topic ‘Protection of the Environment in Relation to Armed Conflict’ (PERAC). The central rules of IHL that are well accepted as customary law provide protection to aspects of the environment that can be considered public or private property, or that are essential to human survival. These aspects of PERAC are firmly rooted in the earliest law of war protections for drinking water, crops, and cultural elements, and in modern domestic environmental law and social norms. Yet protection of the environment during armed conflict as a specific legal obligation is a sufficiently recent international norm that its status as binding law has been more contested than early humanitarian commitments like neutrality of medical personnel. This reflects the tension between recognition of the importance of ecological integrity to peace and the interests of states in retaining freedom in their conduct of military operations.

scholarly journals International Environmental Protection in Armed Conflicts: Traditional Legal Regulation and Interpretation Novelties

Lex Russica ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
N. A. Sokolova
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Environmental Protection ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Legal Regulation ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Wide Range

The paper is devoted to international legal protection of the environment during armed conflicts. The author emphasizes that armed conflicts, both international and non-international, continue to be one of the most serious threats to a healthy environment. An armed conflict taking place in the environment invariably poses a threat to ecosystems.The author summarizes that in international law there are special norms for the protection of natural environment during armed conflicts. At the same time, increasing the level of protection requires a clearer definition of the scope of application of customary law and the further development of treaty rules. While the objectives of protecting the natural environment are linked to the survival and protection of civilians, recognition of environmental protection during armed conflict as such constitutes an important trend. International law calls on States to enter into agreements that provide for additional protection of the natural environment during armed conflicts. The concept of “protecting the natural environment” in international humanitarian law refers to a wide range of obligations that can help protect the natural environment or its parts from damage. A high threshold for potential harm continues to pose the risk that such protection is not fully applicable in practice. There is an obvious tendency to use the potential of the principles of international environmental law when applying the norms of international humanitarian law. Thus, even in cases where the assessment of new means and methods of warfare does not provide scientific certainty with regard to their impact on the natural environment, this does not absolve the parties to the conflict from taking appropriate precautions. It is not enough that there are important rules of international humanitarian law protecting the natural environment during armed conflict; they need to be better disseminated, implemented and enforced, as well as validated and clarified.

scholarly journals Armenian Digital Communications in Karabakh War of 2020: Critical Discourse Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1 (33)) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Anahit Hakobyan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Digital Communications ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media And Communication

The role of media and communication in modern military conflicts is becoming more and more relevant. In this regard, the Karabakh war of 2020 was significant։ it was the first large-scale war in the modern history of Armenia, which took place under the conditions and with the use of digital communications. The article provides a critical discourse analysis of war framing in digital communications. The analysis revealed the techniques and mechanisms of framing, the underlying stereotypes, myths and ideologies, as well as the role of social networks in digital communications that accompanied military operations.

scholarly journals The Right to Life in Armed Conflict

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Park
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
Applicable Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

The controversy surrounding the applicability of the right to life during armed conflict makes it arguably one of the most divisive and topical issues at the junction of international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Recent litigation has, among other things, prompted the UK government to signal an intention to derogate from Article 2, ECHR, subject to certain caveats, in future armed conflicts. The litigation pursuant to Article 2 is also set to continue as the UK, and many other States with right to life obligations, will continue to use lethal force overseas; thus the significance of the issue will remain unabated. The scope and application of the right to life in armed conflict not only concerns parties to the ECHR; the predominance of coalition military operations in recent years has necessitated that it is essential for all troop-contributing States to understand the legal limitations of those States bound by the ECHR. It is equally important that the UN, NATO, NGOs, and other governments not directly involved in the armed conflict are aware of any States’ right to life obligations. Notwithstanding this, the applicability of the right to life in armed conflict is yet to be fully considered in academic literature. This book aims to close this lacuna and address the issue of the right to life in armed conflict by identifying and analysing the applicable law, citing recent examples of State practice, and offering concrete proposals to ensure that States comply with their right to life obligations.

scholarly journals Problems of Typology of Armed Conflicts in Cyberspace

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-103
Author(s):  
Sergey Garkusha-Bozhko
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Armed Force ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Modern World ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Cyber Attack ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
International Character

The development of information technologies in the modern world affects all spheres of human activity, including the sphere of military activities of states. The current level of development of military information technologies allows us to talk about a new fifth possible theatre of military operations, namely, cyberspace. The Tallinn Manual on International Law Applicable to Cyber Operations, developed in 2013 and updated in 2017 by experts from the NATO States, also confirms the likelihood of armed conflict in cyberspace. It is indisputable fact that cyber operations committed in the context of an armed conflict will be subject to the same rules of International Humanitarian Law that apply to such armed conflict. However, many cyber operations that can be classified as military operations may be committed in peacetime and are common cybercrimes. In such circumstances, it is imperative to distinguish between such cybercrimes and situations of armed conflict in cyberspace. Due to the fact, that there are only two types of armed conflict — international and non-international, this problem of differentiation raises the question of the typology of armed conflicts in relation to cyberspace. The main questions within the typology of cyber armed conflicts are: whether an international armed conflict can start solely as a result of a cyber-attack in the absence of the use of traditional armed force; and how to distinguish between ordinary criminal behaviour of individuals in cyberspace and non-international armed conflict in cyberspace? The purpose of this article is to provide answers to these urgent questions. The author analyses the following criteria that play a role in solving the above problems: criteria for assigning a cyber attack to a state and equating such a cyber-attack with an act of using armed force in a cyber armed conflict of an international character; and criteria for the organization of parties and the intensity of military actions in a non-international cyber armed conflict. Based on the results of this analysis, the author gives relevant suggestions for solving the above issues.

INFORMATION ACTIVITIES – ESSENTIAL WARFIGHTING FUNCTION IN TODAY’S MILITARY OPERATIONS

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-77
Author(s):  
George-Ion TOROI
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Psychological Dimension ◽  
Military Conflicts ◽  
Information Operations ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Concept Of Information ◽  
International Conventions

Abstract: The nature of recent military conflicts, largely unconventional, essentially involves two common features related to the type of actors involved and the methods used. If regarding the first of these, one can observe that the tendency is of metamorphosis of conflicts towards the area where state actors are forced to confront malignant non-state actors, such as terrorists or insurgents, the second refers to the methods used in such confrontations, most of them having an unconventional character, which does not comply with international conventions or the laws and principles of armed conflict, methods that have, because of the unprecedented technological development, increased in number and intensity. In this context, military forces have tried to adapt their approach to conflicts, to adjust their force structures, types of operations, but also the related procedures to try to find an optimal response in countering such behaviors. Against this background, the concept of information operations has acquired an essential importance, the use of actions subsumed to it offering the possibility of military force to create effects in the psychological dimension by influencing the target audience, with immeasurably greater results than the classical approach, with effects only in physical dimension.

Protecting the Natural Environment in Armed Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Maurer
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Environmental Consequences ◽  
Climate Risks ◽  
Direct And Indirect Impacts ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas ◽  
Indirect Impacts

Armed conflicts have direct and indirect impacts on the natural environment, and climate risks now magnify this harm for dependent communities. Too often, the natural environment is directly attacked or suffers incidental damage as a result of the use of certain methods or means of warfare. It is also at risk from damage and destruction to the built environment, across urban and rural areas. To reduce this harm, parties to armed conflict can integrate legal protections for the environment into their armed forces’ doctrine to reduce damage as they fight. Humanitarians in turn must commit sufficient resources and expertise to respond to the needs of those coping with the environmental consequences of conflict, and limit their own climate and environmental footprint. In order to address this challenge, in November 2020 the ICRC released the Guidelines on the Protection of the Natural Environment in Armed Conflict which aim to contribute in a practical way to promoting respect for and protection of this precious asset during armed conflicts.

13 Protection of Prisoners in Armed Conflict

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krähenmann Sandra
Keyword(s):  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Humanitarian Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Legal Obligations

This chapter discusses the legal protection of prisoners in any armed conflict and prisoner-of-war status in international armed conflicts. The protection of prisoners in armed conflict is based on ethical, military, and political elements. The humane treatment derives from fundamental legal obligations and the conviction that captured enemies no longer pose any threat to the lives of persons nor to the detaining power. While specific forms and procedures of treatment may be influenced by the former conduct of the prisoner during the combat, for example the use of prohibited weapons, attacks against protected persons, or perfidious acts, standard rules of protection apply. These are deeply rooted in international humanitarian law and human rights. Military considerations also play an important role in the treatment of prisoners in armed conflict. In principle, prisoners are of military value to the adversary. They can be used as sources of information or to influence their comrades who are still fighting. On the other hand, taking and detaining prisoners can impede the detaining power's military operations.

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