Interview with Dr. Brad Evans, Reader in Political Violence, by Achille Després What is torture today? How should we respond to it? On the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, the ICRC convened a panel in Geneva on 26 June 2017. Leading thinkers reflected on…

Modern technologies that actively seek to combine bio, nano, info and neuro elements can give us the ability to ‘enhance’ human beings in ways that we want. This ability — to make soldiers more capable of defeating their enemies and/or surviving the perils of conflict — is of great interest…

By Trevor Keck, Deputy Head of Communications & Congressional Affairs, ICRC We have seen extraordinary suffering in urban wars in the Middle East in recent years. We have heard stories of people in besieged towns in Syria or Yemen, eating grass or garbage to stay alive. We have seen images…

The clan’s revenge came at night. Armed fighters slipped into Ragu, home of the Wombe, at 2 a.m. Three of their clansmen lay dead at Wombe hands, and they could not let the outrage go unanswered. With machetes drawn, they approached the haus man, a community building meant only for…

On 8 June 2017, the Protocols additional to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 turned 40. …

By Melina Lito, International Law Attorney and Mediator In the heart of the Cold War, nuclear weapons were the central issue of international peace and security debates, with a devastating nuclear war considered a realistic possibility. …

In 1618, the first in a series of conflicts broke out in Northern Europe, sparking three decades of violence, famine and disease that swept across the continent and decimated its population. What we now know as the Thirty Years’ War lasted until 1648. The ensuing intellectual upheaval ushered in the…

The Thirty Years’ War saw some of the most violent and bloodiest episodes in history. But it was more than just a frenzy of wanton atrocities. From the chaos of the battlefield emerged new rules — some driven by the very pragmatic need to conserve energy, others by religious dictate. — One unwritten rule was that invading forces should spare villages and towns that showed no resistance, so as not to provoke needless hostility towards the occupying troops.

Outer space is becoming an arena for technological shows of force — whether by deployment of spy satellites or testing of weapons. What does international space law have to say on the militarization of space? In this three-post series (see also here and here), Pavle Kilibarda attempts a broader interpretation of the norms, one that would lead to a more pacifist reading of the law. — Having previously explored the general notion of “peaceful uses” of outer space, as well as the more specific regime governing the use of weapons of mass destruction, there is a third aspect of space law that is relevant to the ‘militarization’ or ‘weaponization’ of outer space: the system of international…