Warfare / Lawfare

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Despite the United Nations’ claim to help “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, the world continues to suffer from genocide, military invasions, civil wars, and other forms of violent conflict. Debates continue to rage about how to fulfill ‘military necessity’ while protecting civilians from harm. When is it legal to resort to the use of force? How do laws regulate warfare to make it more ‘humane’? Conversely, how is law used to justify war and to inflict suffering? This course will introduce students to the law and politics of initiating and conducting war, as well as reckoning with its consequences. It will also consider the practice of ‘lawfare’: the use of law as a weapon of conflict. Students will critically engage in discussions that explore the role of the use of force, also known as the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC), or International Humanitarian Law, in shaping and regulating the global order. The course will cover the development of the laws of armed conflict, the key controversies that animate debates about the use of force, the role of the UN Security Council, humanitarian intervention, the law of occupation, information and cyberwarfare, among other topics. Using real-world examples such as the War on Terror, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Russia-Ukraine, and Israel-Palestine, the course will pay particular attention to critical analyses of lawfare/warfare in contemporary historical and interdisciplinary perspective. It will equip students with the language and the critical analytical tools necessary to understand the laws of war and their role in different contexts from around the world. It is recommended that students who enroll in this course will have taken the Public International Law course. It is not presumed that all students who take this course plan to go into law school. Rather, this course will be of particular interest to students who plan to pursue further studies and training in political science, international law, military and security studies, international relations, and conflict resolution.