International Law and New Wars - Grand Format

International Law and New Wars examines how international law fails to address the actual experience of what are known as "new wars" - instances of armed conflict and violence in places such as Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Mali, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. International law rests to a great extent on an outmoded concept of war drawn from the experiences of previous centuries. The book identifies different models for addressing contemporary forms of violence and shows how they are associated with different interpretations of international law.
In some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It emphasises the role of gender in understanding and responding to "new wars", and puts forward a practical case for a "second generation human security" and the implications this carries for international law.