2024 in Review: Legal Challenges and Breakthroughs in Contemporary Armed Conflicts
2024 was defined by a landscape of intensifying conflicts, continuous technological advancements (see here and here), and evolving debates over the application of the law of armed conflict (LOAC). The persistent war in Ukraine, the volatile Israel-Hezbollah and Israel-Hamas conflicts, the addition of new actors to on-going hostilities (such as Iran and North Korea) and the deepening complexities of hybrid and grey-zone warfare underscored the need for nuanced legal analysis and debate. Against this backdrop, Articles of War provided timely, analytical, and thought-provoking content, publishing over 235 articles addressing legal challenges on the contemporary battlefield.
Our contributors addressed pivotal questions about civilian protection and civilian harm mitigation, accountability, and the interplay of ethics, law, and technology, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence. In addition to addressing various legal dilemmas, they also provided timely and incisive legal analysis regarding incidents that took place throughout the year – from exploding pagers, to damaged pipelines and submarine cable-cuts in the Baltic Sea, to Ukraine’s incursions into Russian territory, to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) issuance of arrest warrants.