Humanitarian law vs. counterinsurgency - is there a need to change the law?

Abstract

The law of armed conflict - also known as the laws of war or international humanitarian law - was developed and codified in times of more traditional state-to-state conflicts. It was created to fit the type of conventional, symmetrical, international wars fought in the XIX and XX centuries with an assumption that conventional war strategy - kill or capture the enemy - was the route to victory. This symmetrical warfare is to be understood as armed conflict between states of roughly equal military strength. Warring parties operated under similar principles of conducting military engagement using similar means and methods of warfare. In traditional conflicts, the need to destroy an enemy has been considered as the centre of gravity, reflecting the concept of Frederick the Great of the "entire destruction of your enemies” which can be accomplished by death, injury, or any other means.