ASYMMETRIC WARFARE AS A CHALLENGE FOR INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW?

Abstract

The Conflict in Syria has brought asymmetrical warfare back to the attention of the wider public - at the same time is the outside view on the conflict no longer limited to what the media chose to report as Youtube has become a propaganda tool in this conflict as well. At the same time, the degree of uncertainty with regard to events on the ground is significant. This provides a stark contrast to the way in which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) provided information on operations during the 1999 war against Yugoslavia. In a sense, the daily press briefings and in all likelihood unprecedented openness which were utilized by NATO in Operation Allied Force helped to create the image of a clean war. This image was aided by the massive involvement of lawyers in the war effort. In a review of Wesley K. Clark’s book “Waging Modern War: Bosnia, Kosovo and the Future of Combat”, in which NATO’s former Supreme Commander draws his conclusions from Operation Allied Force, Richard K. Betts remarks that "One of the most striking features of the Kosovo campaign, in fact, was the remarkable direct role lawyers played in managing combat operations - to a degree unprecedented in previous wars. [...] The role played by lawyers in this war should also be sobering - indeed alarming - for devotees of power politics who denigrate the impact of law on armed conflict."3 Although Clark saw the origin of the increasing role of lawyers in U.S. law, Operation Allied Force serves as a showcase for the effect the demand for compliance with International Humanitarian Law has had on armed forces not only since the beginning of the Balkan Wars but maybe already since the wake of My Lai: if one wants to compare NATO’s relative openness about military activities conducted in the name of Human Rights to, influenced especially by the European NATO partners,4 with the U.S.’ attitude regarding operations in Vietnam and elsewhere, the influence IHL has had especially in Europe becomes obvious: While in earlier wars cover-ups were the norm, the armed forces of Western Democracies nowadays are subject to more public scrutiny than ever before.