Illegal War Research Articles

The Outsourcing of State Security: A Case Study of US Intervention in Laos, 1962–1975

The United States (US) involvement in covert action abroad has received significant scholarly attention, including the outsourcing of force to third parties, such as foreign death squads, private paramilitaries, and more recently private military and security companies. However, less attention has been paid to the routine and everyday mechanisms the US state uses to administer outsourced force, and the impacts this has both on the combatants and civilians. Through a historical examination of the covert conflict in Laos from 1962–1975, this article documents the routine administrative mechanisms the US state employed to prosecute an illegal war. This article’s principal contribution to the state crime literature is the documentation of the hidden harms this generated both for the combatants used and the civilians affected by the violence. This contribution is grounded in interviews conducted with ex-service people from the conflict period and archival research, including recently declassified materials.

Сущность войны: анализ основных концепций

The article delves into a consistent analysis of the opposing paradigms of the essence of war – the metaphysical and dialectical paradigms. The former is represented by two directions – “depoliticization” and “absolute politicization of war”. Specific conceptions of the essence of this phenomenon realized within its framework are described – economic, naturalistic, militaristic and axiological. It reveals their scientific inconsistency and reactionary political content – attempts to justify openly unjust, invasive, illegal wars with references to natural, native and eternal “laws” of social existence. The second direction reflects the views of those who reduce the essence of politics itself to armed violence, to a strategy in international relations “from a position of strength”, which they try to “justify” even clearly aggressive wars. The dialectical paradigm of war is based on the analysis of the essence of war as a unity of politics and armed violence, with the leading role of the former and the latter being driven by the latter, which, in turn, actively influences the former. The study implements the historical method of analysis in empirical and conceptual aspects. Structural-functional and world-system analysis methodology made it possible to incorporate the essential problems of modern international politics and military strategy into the content of the article, including Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) in Ukraine. Scientific novelty is contained in the unique methodology presented in the paradigms of the essence of war and the classification of their specific concepts. There are also elements of critical analysis of some modern concepts of our scientists on the analyzed problem.

Sustainable Development through Regulatory Competition without Effective UN and WTO Legal Restraints?

The current human disasters – like illegal wars of aggression, violent suppression of human and democratic rights, health pandemics, climate change, ocean pollution, overfishing and other biodiversity losses, non-compliance with United Nations (UN) and World Trade Organization (WTO) law – reflect governance failures and insufficient cooperation (section I.) to protect the ‘sustainable development goals’ (SDGs). Since 1950, Europe’s multilevel constitutionalism succeeded in progressively limiting transnational governance failures; yet, it is not followed outside Europe (section II.). Geopolitical rivalries (e. g. among authoritarian and democratic states) and competing national and regional regulations (e. g. on decarbonisation, digitalisation, and securitisation of economies) increasingly undermine UN and WTO legal restraints and judicial remedies (see section III.). The more globalisation is perceived as creating vulnerabilities justifying national security restrictions (e. g. against spread of viruses, weaponisation of interdependence), the more democracies resort to plurilateral second-best responses like trade, investment and environmental agreements conditioning market access on respect for human rights and greenhouse gas reductions (section IV.). This contribution explains why regulatory competition, ‘authoritarian alliances’, and their influence on plurilateral agreements (e. g. in Asia) render ‘constitutional UN/WTO reforms’ and realisation of the SDGs unlikely.

International Economic Law in the ‘Asian Century’

ABSTRACT The current non-compliance with United Nations (UN) and World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements protecting transnational public goods, military aggression among WTO members, violent suppression of human and democratic rights, global health pandemics, climate change, ocean pollution, overfishing, and other biodiversity losses reflect ‘governance failures’ (e.g. to limit ‘market failures’) and ‘constitutional failures’ (e.g. to protect human and democratic rights and the sustainable development goals). The geopolitical rivalries among totalitarian governments and democracies render constitutional UN and WTO reforms unlikely. They entail ‘regulatory competition’ (e.g. among neoliberalism, state capitalism, and ordo-liberal constitutionalism) and plurilateral responses aimed at limiting abuses of power (like collective countermeasures against Russia’s illegal wars and war crimes) and at protecting transnational public goods (like plurilateral ‘climate change mitigation clubs’, appeal arbitration among WTO members, regional human rights and security agreements). The power politics disrupting the UN and WTO legal systems is bound to promote regionalization of economic law, re-globalization of supply chains, and geopolitical rivalries resulting from conflicting value priorities and neglect for the human rights underlying the sustainable development goals.

‘Global South’ Voices Are Muted in Debates over the Crime of Aggression: What Three Books on Illegal War Tell Us About Why

‘Global South’ Voices Are Muted in Debates over the Crime of Aggression: What Three Books on Illegal War Tell Us About Why

The role of the international institutions in the protection of human rights and freedoms in the sphere of national security

The need for qualitative changes in the field of national security also requires the transformation of international institutions responsible for the protection of human rights and freedoms. Therefore, the aim of the article was to identify the role of international institutions in the protection of human rights and freedoms in the field of national security. The main methodological tools were the observational method and the comparative legal method. There is currently a dynamic increase in the number of international treaties ratified in the field of human rights. International institutions are making many efforts to achieve the highest level of efficiency of adequate protection mechanisms. The authorization of an illegal war exposes states to prosecution in international courts. Everything leads to the conclusion that the competence capacity of institutions seems to be limited in the face of increasing violations of human rights in many regions of the world, which leads to the need to reform international legal instruments and relevant procedures for the protection of human rights and freedoms in the field of national security.

The crime of aggression as a violation of the rights of one’s own population

ABSTRACT In its traditional understanding, aggression is a crime against state. A number of scholars have, by contrast, increasingly framed the wrong of aggression as lying in its devastating consequences for the populations affected. That emergent human rights framing, however, has largely focused on the population of the other state. This article seeks to go beyond this nascent human rights framing of aggression, by looking at the possibility that waging an illegal war can also be interpreted as a violation of the rights of a state’s own population, including both combatants and non-combatants. In doing so, we seek to reconnect the argument against aggression to domestic human rights themes involving the responsibility of the sovereign towards persons within its jurisdiction. We suggest that this approach can help produce a more normatively grounded and textured account of the grounds for proscribing war that better connects both domestic and international legal conversations.

Recourse to Use of Force or Threat Thereof, Justification of An Illegal War: A Tale of the Ukraine-Russia War

Recourse to Use of Force or Threat Thereof, Justification of An Illegal War: A Tale of the Ukraine-Russia War

مدى مشروعیة الحرب الوقائیة على افغانستان والعراق فی القانون الدولی

مدى مشروعیة الحرب الوقائیة على افغانستان والعراق فی القانون الدولی

A road paved with good intentions?: FERC’s illegal war on state electricity subsidies

Most initial reviews of FERC’s order have offered scathing criticism of its negative policy consequences. Our critique adds two perspectives not represented thus far in the reaction to FERC’s order. First, we explain how the FERC majority got to the point where it felt compelled to take action against state subsidies and why that judgment, although understandable in some respects, is misguided. FERC’s action follows logically from a flawed policy adopted by a Democratic-majority Commission in 2011. Second, we explain why FERC’s order fails to create a mechanism for a just and reasonable price and violates both the Administrative Procedure Act and Federal Power Act. It is therefore likely to be set aside by a court during the judicial review process.

Psychopathy screening for public leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to re-open a debate as to whether candidates for public leadership should be screened for psychopathy. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper which examines the diffuse literature concerning psychopaths in public leadership positions. Findings Psychopathy researchers have been divided as to whether psychopathic individuals should be screened out of leadership positions in public and corporate life. Recent evidence from bullying research and historical research into psychopaths in politics sheds new light on this issue. Practical implications There is increasing evidence that psychopaths are detrimental to the organisations they work for, to other employees, to the environment and to society. Screening for psychopathy should therefore be considered. This may help to prevent governments entering into illegal wars and committing crimes against humanity. Screening in the corporate sector may also help prevent the worst excesses of greed and fraud that were evident in collapses like Enron and the Mirror Group as well as in the events leading up to the global financial crisis of 2008. Originality/value The paper makes a contribution to the literature on public leadership by bringing together the diverse reports on the effects of psychopaths in public organisations like the National Health Service, publicly listed corporations, academia and politics. The paper uses historical and corporate examples to illustrate the initially favourable impression that psychopathic leaders can make but the ultimately disastrous outcomes they engender.

Human Rights: Illusion or Reality; Theological (Shiite) Perspective (Part 2)

The discussion is based around these issues, history of Human Rights, timeline for Human Rights history, question asked in this regard and enemy and friend of ‘human rights’. Describing the problems and its resolve from logical reasoning perspective; intellectual argumentation based on logical reason of, what is universal human right, democracy and illegal wars in the world by super powers as example America? Attempt to describe the inner construction of a human being-perfection-. Introduction to the concept of infallibility in different parts in the article, purify yourself and being purified. What is it, is it possible for a creation named human to be not fallible, is the idea or practicing it impossible or there is a great sphere of being able to practicing it and reaching the status if one finds guidance for the right way with peace and human rights prevailed in the world. Majority of the thought in the text, based on hadith-tradition- from the Prophet of Islam Peace upon Him and His family Ahl al-Bait Peace upon Them.

Human Rights: Illusion or Reality; Theological (Shiite) Perspective

The discussion is based around these issues, history of Human Rights, timeline for Human Rights history, question asked in this regard and enemy and friend of ‘human rights’. Describing the problems and its resolve from logical reasoning perspective; intellectual argumentation based on logical reason of, what is universal human right, democracy and illegal wars in the world by super powers as example America? Attempt to describe the inner construction of a human being-perfection-. Introduction to the concept of infallibility in different parts in the article, purify yourself and being purified. What is it, is it possible for a creation named human to be not fallible, is the idea or practicing it impossible or there is a great sphere of being able to practicing it and reaching the status if one finds guidance for the right way with peace and human rights prevailed in the world. Majority of the thought in the text, based on hadith-tradition- from the Prophet of Islam Peace upon Him and His family Ahl al-Bait Peace upon Them.Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2015 Vol.6 (1):15-21.

Book Review: Other Areas: The Illegal War on Libya

Book Review: Other Areas: The Illegal War on Libya

Legitimní a nelegitimní války po roce 1990

This treatise is a follow-up to an article by the same author in Military Review No. 2, 2012, dealing with legal and illegal war after 1990. Now the author concentrates on another key question: the legitimacy and the unlawfulness of force deployments in internationalrelations. The paper is grounded on fundamental works by the former Australian foreign secretary Gareth Evans, setting international rules or criteria determining when it is right to fight. The effectiveness of the global security system is not only on the legality of its security decisions, military actions, but the common perception of their legitimacy-whether they are made on solid evidentiary grounds, for the right reasons, morally as well as legally.

Dangerous Precedent: America’s Illegal War in Afghanistan

Osama bin Laden’s death has lead many to question the efficacy of America’s continued fighting in Afghanistan. Too often dismissed is any meaningful discussion of the legality of the war on terror in Afghanistan, where the U.S. has promised to keep fighting until at least 2014. The use of force in international law is generally forbidden, except under three circumstances: in self-defense, pursuant to a United Nations Security Council resolution, or with consent from the leader of an invaded state. After a careful examination of all three, it is apparent that America’s continued fighting in Afghanistan, more than a decade after 9/11, does not fall under any category. By continuing to fight this illegal war, America loses a significant amount of moral high ground and tangible international leverage. Worse still, by relying on an illegitimate leader’s consent as justification for the war, America unwittingly establishes a precarious blueprint for future states to follow. Whatever sound (or unsound) reasons America has for continuing the war, its illegality foreshadows a more dangerous future.

Hands Across The Atlantic?

The war in Iraq created a division between the United States and some members of the European Union. The war also split the EU, with France and Germany leading the anti-war camp and Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain supporting Washington. With organized warfare over, the United States has shifted its attention from the military campaign to the installation of a legitimate and stable government in Iraq. However, the administration of post-war Iraq has caused the division between the US and Europe to widen.The multilateralists, France and Germany, are demanding a central role for the UN in rebuilding Iraq. France, in particular, believes that the task should be left to the UN alone. They suggest this would help legitimize what they consider to be an illegal war. On the other hand, the US, which accepted a great burden with the pre-emptive attack on Iraq, wants the UN to have a vital but limited role in post-war Iraq. The US believes that the UN needs serious repair before any responsibilities can be handed to it.This study examines the economic, political, and security implications of the division between these old allies. The relationship between the US and EU is based on years of cooperation. Both sides know that they must mend fences sooner rather than later. We contend that pragmatism will triumph over geo-politics.

"Definitional Traps" and Misleading Titles

"Definitional Traps" and Misleading Titles

President Bush's Illegal Wars

President Bush's Illegal Wars

“Building a Movement to End this Illegal and Immoral War”

“Building a Movement to End this Illegal and Immoral War”