War Is Too Important to be Left to the Lawyers

Abstract

This paper examines the rising phenomenon of law as a weapon capable of producing military advantages or disadvantages on the 21st century battlefield. Specifically, it explores how legal differences between the U.S. and coalition partners have adversely impacted the theater commander's military operations in Kosovo during ALLIED FORCE and in Iraq and Afghanistan during counter-insurgency operations. Finally, the paper offers suggestions for who should be responsible for improving legal interoperability, where they should engage, and what tools they currently have available for identifying, minimizing, or at least ameliorating, legal differences between U.S. and coalition partners in the future.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 29, 2008
Accession Number
ADA494360

Entities

People

  • Troy R. Stone

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Department Of Defense
  • Foreign Relations
  • Governments
  • Human Rights
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Relations
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Supreme Court
  • United States
  • United States Government
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies