Controlling the Use of Force: A Role for Human Rights Norms in Contemporary Armed Conflict

Abstract

According to protesters, U.S. soldiers fired on them without provocation, killing seventeen people and wounding more than seventy. According to die U.S. military, the soldiers returned precision fire on gunmen in the crowd who were shooting at them.—Human Rights WatchThe twenty-first century has witnessed significant challenges to the traditional view that international humanitarian law exclusively regulates the use of force in armed conflict. The death and destruction caused on September 11,2001, reflect the increasingly complex nature of modern conflict. Groups that rely on the benefits of globalization and technological advances to conduct operations across international borders are threatening the maintenance of international order. Their tools of violence range from conventional weapons of war to more modern weapons of mass destruction and potentially asymmetric “cyber attacks.”