Thirteen years after the United States initiated a military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the nation continues to prosecute what it considers an armed conflict against transnational terrorist groups. Understanding how the law of armed conflict applies to and regulates military operations executed within the scope of this armed conflict against transnational nonstate terrorist groups is as important today as it was in September 2001. This is because the core purpose of this branch of international law (what was historically known as the law of war) is to strike an eff ... More

Thirteen years after the United States initiated a military response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the nation continues to prosecute what it considers an armed conflict against transnational terrorist groups. Understanding how the law of armed conflict applies to and regulates military operations executed within the scope of this armed conflict against transnational nonstate terrorist groups is as important today as it was in September 2001. This is because the core purpose of this branch of international law (what was historically known as the law of war) is to strike an effective balance between the necessity of using armed violence to subdue a threat to the nation with the humanitarian interest of mitigating the suffering inevitably associated with that use. How this core purpose of the law of armed conflict has influenced operational decisions related to all aspects of the military response to al-Qaeda and associated forces is the focus of this book. Each chapter will address a specific operational issue, including the national right of self-defense, military targeting and the use of drones, detention, interrogation, and trial by military commission of captured terrorist operatives, and the impact of battlefield perspectives on counter-terror military operations and illustrate how the law of armed conflict influences resolution of that issue. Some chapters will go further. All will reinforce the essential link between respect for the law and strategic legitimacy, perhaps the most enduring lesson from this on-going national challenge.