With the ascendance of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the international community has struggled to adapt to the new international security context. Among the challenges that are currently being confronted are questions relating to how states may...

The rise of transnational armed conflicts (conflicts between states and non-state actors) has raised complicated questions about the scope of such conflicts and the law applicable to them. When does human rights law exclusively govern a situation and at what point does IHL also apply? One...

Al Qaeda’s dispersal and the rise of regional terrorist groups such as al Shabab in Somalia have raised the stakes for defining an “organized armed group” (OAG). The law of armed conflict applies to violence between OAGs. If an entity fails the OAG test, a state may use only traditional...