Hitoshi Nasu
United States Military Academy, Law, Faculty Member
- International Law, International Law of Armed Conflicts, International Humanitarian Law, Peacekeeping, Regionalism and Multilateralism, Regional Diplomacy, and 4 moreLaw of Armed Conflict, Responsibility to Protect, International Studies, and International humanitarian law, Peacekeeping, protection of civiliansedit
- Hitoshi Nasu is Professor of Law at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and Senior Fellow at the Stockton... moreHitoshi Nasu is Professor of Law at the United States Military Academy, West Point, and Senior Fellow at the Stockton Center for International Law, United States Naval War College. Prior to his current appointment, he served as Professor of International Law at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. From 2007 to 2017 he taught law at the Australian National University, where he was also Co-Director of the Centre for Military and Security Law and the Australian Network for Japanese Law.edit
A fundamental problem in the relationship between war and law has emerged, with two diverging approaches to conceptualizing how law applies to the conduct of hostilities: the operational application for the implementation of legal... more
A fundamental problem in the relationship between war and law has emerged, with two diverging approaches to conceptualizing how law applies to the conduct of hostilities: the operational application for the implementation of legal obligations during combat operations, on the one hand, and the adjudicative application for prosecution and reparation, on the other. Diverging approaches stem from institutional and practical constraints on adjudication, testing the fundamental premise upon which international law operates as a political project to manage international order under the rule of law. This article addresses the doctrinal manifestation of this trend and articulates the parameters in which battlefield conduct can be adjudicated without infringing upon the underlying logic of the law by adhering to its consistent, equal, and objective application.
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Is legal uncertainty within the existing structure of international law truly responsible for a grey zone that hostile actors can exploit by employing hybrid tactics? The legal uncertainty arguably exists at the intersection between legal... more
Is legal uncertainty within the existing structure of international law truly responsible for a grey zone that hostile actors can exploit by employing hybrid tactics? The legal uncertainty arguably exists at the intersection between legal justifications required for resorting to an armed force against external forces in jus ad bellum and the applicability of the legal regime of jus in bello that governs the conduct of hostilities in international or non-international armed conflict. However, the development of jurisprudence over the course of years goes some way to clarify threshold legal questions for the law of armed conflict-the hostile action either amounts to a use of force prohibited under international law or does not when it can be justified as a lawful exercise of sovereignty or in the exercise of the right of self-defense; the state is either engaging in an international or non-international armed conflict, or in a peacetime law enforcement operation. The legality of action may be disputed, but that does not mean that there is legal uncertainty as to how the relevant rules of international law apply. The ability of hostile actors to exploit a grey zone by employing hybrid tactics does not derive from legal lacunae in which they can operate with impunity but rather represents structural problems of international law. This chapter critically considers how the existing structure of international law contributes to the growth of hybrid threats as a strategic choice of hostile actors, causing law-abiding states to suffer a disadvantage to the detriment of their security.
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This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Brill via the link in this recordA dynamic shift in global power balance and the rapid pace of technological advances are likely to pose an existential threat to... more
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Brill via the link in this recordA dynamic shift in global power balance and the rapid pace of technological advances are likely to pose an existential threat to the United Nations (‘UN’) and its collective security system. The political impasse at the Security Council has undermined its ability to address international security crises in recent years. Proceeding with the assumption that the UN collective security system ceases to perform its function, this article provides a thought experiment (Gedankenexperiment) on how international law might operate and evolve in the absence of collective security enforcement. The primary focus of this inquiry is to what extent the fundamental structure of international law might revert to the pre-Charter era and how the modern development of international law achieved under the UN Charter might survive and set a course for normative restructuring. This article tests the...
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Disaster Management: Socio-Legal and Asia-Pacific Perspectives.- A Public Health Perspective on Reconstructing Post-Disaster Japan.- Disaster in Japan: A Case Study.- Government Liability for Regulatory Failure in the Fukushima Disaster:... more
Disaster Management: Socio-Legal and Asia-Pacific Perspectives.- A Public Health Perspective on Reconstructing Post-Disaster Japan.- Disaster in Japan: A Case Study.- Government Liability for Regulatory Failure in the Fukushima Disaster: An Australian Comparison.- Liability for Nuclear Damages under Japanese Law: Key Legal Problems Arising from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident.- Managing Future Disasters: Japan's Energy Security and Nanotechnology Regulation.- The March 2011 Tohoku Disaster in Japanese Science Fiction.- BRR Aceh-Nias: Post-disaster Reconstruction Governance.- Disaster Management Law in Indonesia: From Response to Preparedness? .- The Legal System in China and the Handling of Accidents and Disasters.- The Slow Road to Recovery: A City Rebuilds under the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act 2011.- Human Rights and Dignity: Lessons from the Canterbury Rebuild and Recovery Effort.- Tax Policy and Chaos: War, Disaster, and the Role of the Tax System.- Internation...
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National authorities have responded with different regulatory solutions in attempts to minimise the adverse impact of fake news and associated information disorder. This article reviews three different regulatory approaches that have... more
National authorities have responded with different regulatory solutions in attempts to minimise the adverse impact of fake news and associated information disorder. This article reviews three different regulatory approaches that have emerged in recent years—information correction, content removal or blocking, and criminal sanctions—and critically evaluates their normative compliance with the applicable rules of international human rights law and their likely effectiveness based on an evidence-based psychological analysis. It identifies, albeit counter intuitively, criminal sanction as an effective regulatory response that can be justified when it is carefully tailored in a way that addresses legitimate interests to be protected.
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The increased ability of non-state actors to engage in hostilities, with the assistance of various technologically developed means of warfare readily available to them, is changing the dynamics of modern warfare. While coordinating their... more
The increased ability of non-state actors to engage in hostilities, with the assistance of various technologically developed means of warfare readily available to them, is changing the dynamics of modern warfare. While coordinating their operations through a web of de-centralized networks, non-state actors may emulate conventional armed forces in terms of the scale and effects of violence or complement a State’s political and military apparatus in pursuing shared political or military objectives. Such combination of traditional means of warfare and de-centralized operations, described as ‘hybrid warfare’, allows hostile actors to exploit legal uncertainties within the existing structure of international law, in order to gain a political or military advantage against their opponents. Threats of hybrid warfare are not alien to the Asia-Pacific, with the philosophical foundation of the concept found in Chinese military doctrines such as ‘people’s war’ and ‘unrestricted warfare’.
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The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) provides four different legal regimes for navigation of ships: innocent passage in the territorial sea or archipelagic waters of a coastal state, transit passage and... more
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) provides four different legal regimes for navigation of ships: innocent passage in the territorial sea or archipelagic waters of a coastal state, transit passage and overflight in straits used for international navigation, archipelagic sea lanes passage and overflight, and freedom of navigation and overflight on the high seas. In South East Asia these legal regimes of navigation are present, which sets a complex legal context in which international shipping operates while confronting multiple regional maritime security issues, such as piracy and armed robbery at sea. The complexity of legal regimes of navigation is not in itself an issue that gives rise to any security concern in the maritime context. This chapter unravels these complications for navigation of ships as a maritime security challenge, with a view to establishing a holistic picture of legal issues that confront the navigation of international shipping passing through this region.
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merely as ideological or instrumental pawns in political parties. Thwarting the assumption that women only play second fiddle to men in political parties, either as subordinates or proxies, Bedi argues that women have managed to use the... more
merely as ideological or instrumental pawns in political parties. Thwarting the assumption that women only play second fiddle to men in political parties, either as subordinates or proxies, Bedi argues that women have managed to use the social expectations of their gender creatively, to produce a distinct kind of political presence. This presence borrows heavily from the traditionally allotted cultural and domestic spheres of women, and merges them with their political ambitions and personal styles, to manifest as a system of doing politics, unheard of in the rational-legal definitions of politics. Drawing from the ideas of Laura Ahearn (‘Language andAgency’, Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 109–137, 2001) and Saba Mahmood (Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005) on agency, Bedi contests the jaded template of agency as oppositional, rational and liberal, as is prevalent in the western feminist context. Instead, she fixes her lens on the micro-level dynamics of local transactional politics, where women are key actors. For the women in question here, it is often the co-option of male registers of action, rather than resistance to them, that enables agentive action. Bedi’s own act of wearing a sari, green bangles andmangalsutra (a necklace symbolizing a woman’s marital status) for her fieldwork, which she calls her ‘costume’ (83), and her ability to navigate freely and unhesitatingly amongmale and female party workers, is tellingly agentive and useful. Manifested in the trope of ‘adjustment’, which many of her informants refer to as ‘daily negotiations’ in their domestic lives which enable their public roles, are spaces of agentive action, which can be both conforming or subversive in nature. Within the party’s non-liberal framework on gender relations and its rigid structural restrictions for women, these women locate gaps and seize opportunities for expressing their innovative and unique political personalities. Not only are these women recipients of patronage, they are also fixers and distributors of political favours. This positionality, which enables women to receive, disperse as well as fix political transactions, despite structural odds, is what Bedi has called ‘women’s political matronage’. Bedi’s conceptualization of ‘political matronage’ introduces a new vantage point for investigating the female subject in urban local politics, a subject who is simultaneously powerful and vulnerable, giver and receiver, actor and spectator, conforming and subversive. This book contributes to debates on women in religious and cultural-nationalist political parties in India, and to scholarship on political charisma, brokerage and grassroots-level politics. It argues for a new theory of the ‘feminist political subject’, provoking us to rethink and redefine theoretical boundaries and material markers of women’s engagement with politics, and the intersection of the private, public and political.
Research Interests: Geography, Japanese Studies, Indian studies, Naval History, Political Science, and 15 moreAsia Pacific Region, China, Indian Ocean World, Multidisciplinary, Maritime Security, Indonesian Politics, National Security, South China Sea, Blue Economy, Contemporary South Asia, Royal Australian Navy, Japanese security, East China Sea, Indian Navy, and Indo Pacific
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The development and implementation of domestic cyber security strategies has become a top priority for many Asia-Pacific nations. Cyber security threats present a particularly complex challenge for the Asia-Pacific region due to... more
The development and implementation of domestic cyber security strategies has become a top priority for many Asia-Pacific nations. Cyber security threats present a particularly complex challenge for the Asia-Pacific region due to pre-existing geopolitical rivalries, as well as the political, economic, and socio-cultural diversity that characterises this region. This chapter reviews cyber security policy initiatives by regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific with a view to considering how regional cyber security efforts are hampered by interaction with the traditional security challenges that confront many states in the region. It reveals that while regional institutions, particularly ASEAN and APEC, have made concerted efforts to galvanize regional states into collective action against malicious cyber activities, the strategic and tactical advantages gained from the exploitation of cyberspace amplifies existing geopolitical tensions in the Asia-Pacific.
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The disasters in Fukushima following 11 March 2011 have reminded us of the fragility of technological safety measures and the danger of lax implementation of safety regulations. The loss of confidence in the reliability of nuclear energy... more
The disasters in Fukushima following 11 March 2011 have reminded us of the fragility of technological safety measures and the danger of lax implementation of safety regulations. The loss of confidence in the reliability of nuclear energy has quickly spread around the world, raising concerns about energy security. The rapid development of nanotechnology and its applications in a wide range of products such as solar cells, are expected to help alleviate these global energy security concerns. However, inadequate regulation of the application of this new technology to industries, businesses and households may pose equally significant security threats to human health, the environment and natural resources. This chapter addresses challenges to the regulation of nanotechnology, drawing on the experience and impacts of the failure of nuclear safety regulation in Japan to prevent the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It will be argued that Japan should be more pre-emptive in revisiting the regulatory framework for accident management from a security perspective, while at the same time facilitating scientists’ free experimentation using engineered nanomaterials as catalysts for scientific breakthroughs in alternative energy sources.
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ABSTRACT Human security is a human- or people-centred and multi-sectoral approach to security, emphasizing the empowerment of people to enhance their potential through concerted efforts to develop norms, processes and institutions that... more
ABSTRACT Human security is a human- or people-centred and multi-sectoral approach to security, emphasizing the empowerment of people to enhance their potential through concerted efforts to develop norms, processes and institutions that systematically address insecurities. Since the UN Development Programme introduced the concept of human security into the policy discourse in 1994, the UN Security Council has indicated its readiness to embrace human security when it refers to, for example, the impact of HIV/AIDS on peace and security in Africa, food security, climate change, children in armed conflict, women and peace and security, and the protection of civilians more generally. Human security has also provided a theoretical foundation for the development of the responsibility to protect concept as a policy agenda, which was officially endorsed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome. However, these developments often involved heated debates over the Security Council’s mandate and competence under the UN collective security system. By reviewing those debates, this article examines how the idea of human security has informed the operation of the UN collective security system and to what extent jurisdictional, normative and operational challenges to the Security Council have been addressed in dealing with human security issues within its legal framework.
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The idea of invisibility has long tantalized the human imagination. Once considered fantastical, recent advances have edged technology closer to the possibility of invisibility. On the battlefield, invisibility technology could be used to... more
The idea of invisibility has long tantalized the human imagination. Once considered fantastical, recent advances have edged technology closer to the possibility of invisibility. On the battlefield, invisibility technology could be used to cloak soldiers and military equipment without restraining the mobility or manoeuvrability of troops and equipment. These developments necessitate a consideration of how the Law of Armed Conflict should be interpreted and applied to the use of invisibility technology in warfare. In particular, invisibility raises questions concerning how to determine when the use of invisibility technology has crossed from lawful ruse to prohibited act of perfidy. This chapter explores how the use of invisibility to conceal the causal connection between an act of perfidy and an attack may fall within a grey area of the law.
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Although human security is not originally designed to be an integral part of the UN collective security system, the idea that the Security Council should address human security issues only emerged in the late 1990s. However, these... more
Although human security is not originally designed to be an integral part of the UN collective security system, the idea that the Security Council should address human security issues only emerged in the late 1990s. However, these attempts to incorporate the human security agenda into the practice of the Security Council within the framework of collective security have involved inevitable difficulties in reconciling competing priorities. This chapter unravels the inherent tension that has arisen from the use of collective enforcement and peacekeeping operations as the means of advancing human security.
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The change of the political climate in the post-Cold War era has generated a legitimate and plausible concern that the Security Council may remain unfettered in the application of Chapter VII powers if it remains beyond any sort of check... more
The change of the political climate in the post-Cold War era has generated a legitimate and plausible concern that the Security Council may remain unfettered in the application of Chapter VII powers if it remains beyond any sort of check and balance mechanism. As far as the adoption of peacekeeping measures is concerned, the role that the General Assembly can play is limited, owing partly to the limitations imposed upon it under the Charter in its relationship with the Security Council. The conventional view is that the supremacy of the rule of law over the exercise of discretionary power is best maintained through judicial control. Every peacekeeping measure must be adopted and implemented within the jurisdiction of the authorising organ in conformity with the general and specific requirements under the UN Charter.Keywords: judicial control; peacekeeping measures; political control; UN Charter
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Peacekeeping measures adopted as provisional measures under Article 40 of the Charter are subject to the principle of non-intervention, since those measures by no means constitute enforcement measures as the stated exception to the... more
Peacekeeping measures adopted as provisional measures under Article 40 of the Charter are subject to the principle of non-intervention, since those measures by no means constitute enforcement measures as the stated exception to the principle. This chapter examines whether UN actions would constitute intervention in the domestic jurisdiction of a state in contravention of Article 2(7) of the UN Charter when the Security Council adopts peacekeeping measures to prevent the aggravation of an internal armed conflict. Peacekeeping measures would face the issue of intervention in domestic jurisdiction of states when they are undertaken in respect of armed conflicts within a state. Impartiality is an active requirement for a fair and just treatment of the parties to a conflict as an independent choice, whereas neutrality is a passive requirement for abstention from the conflict within restrictions imposed by belligerents.Keywords: armed conflict; domestic jurisdiction; impartiality; non-intervention; peacekeeping measures; security council; UN Charter
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A dynamic shift in global power balance and the rapid pace of technological advances are likely to pose an existential threat to the United Nations (‘UN’) and its collective security system. The political impasse at the Security Council... more
A dynamic shift in global power balance and the rapid pace of technological advances are likely to pose an existential threat to the United Nations (‘UN’) and its collective security system. The political impasse at the Security Council has undermined its ability to address international security crises in recent years. Proceeding with the assumption that the UN collective security system ceases to perform its function, this article provides a thought experiment (Gedankenexperiment) on how international law might operate and evolve in the absence of collective security enforcement. The primary focus of this inquiry is to what extent the fundamental structure of international law might revert to the pre- Charter era and how the modern development of international law achieved under the UN Charter might survive and set a course for normative restructuring. This article tests the hypothesis that the receding institutional capacity to contain destabilising behaviour will have a normativ...
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This article considers the readiness of international law to protect States from information operations that are launched as the means of disrupting government response to the spread of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. It examines... more
This article considers the readiness of international law to protect States from information operations that are launched as the means of disrupting government response to the spread of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19. It examines both the external- and internal-facing dynamics for international regulation of misinformation, with the focus on the principle of non-intervention as an external regulation of misinformation under general international law and freedom of expression guaranteed under human rights treaties for internal regulation.
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The traditional law of neutrality emerged to address the conflicting interests of belligerent and neutral states, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when maritime transport gained significance to the world’s... more
The traditional law of neutrality emerged to address the conflicting interests of belligerent and neutral states, particularly during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when maritime transport gained significance to the world’s economies as the means of international commerce. The fundamental principles of impartiality and abstention from assisting belligerents in the prosecution of warfare were developed to balance the right of neutral states to freedom of trade against the right of belligerents to defend themselves against the damage that might arise from such trade. While, since then, the law of neutrality has remained stagnant, the growth in dual-use technologies and various means of transmitting knowledge, goods and services has created the environment where military operations rely heavily on interconnected infrastructure such as cyber and space assets. Further technological advances in different areas such as 3D printing and nanotechnology are expected to reduce the need...
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This article first explains how the existing principles and rules of weapons law regulate military applications of nanotechnology in light of the specific characteristics of the weapons that will be enabled or enhanced by the use of... more
This article first explains how the existing principles and rules of weapons law regulate military applications of nanotechnology in light of the specific characteristics of the weapons that will be enabled or enhanced by the use of nanotechnology. Second, it examines the transformative impact of nanotechnology-enabled or -enhanced weapons on existing weapons law. In doing so, it dissects the law into its constitutive elements of military necessity and humanity, while identifying two different understandings of humanity: one concerning the protection of civilians from armed attack and the other concerning the protection of lawful targets from certain means and methods of warfare. Third, it further explores the potential of nanotechnology to drive a change to existing weapons law by contextualizing this question against two academic debates that have recently taken place: one on the power to kill or capture and another on the legality of incapacitating chemical agents. It concludes w...
Research Interests: International Law, Political Science, International Humanitarian Law, Armed Conflict, Chemical, and 15 moreNanotechnology, Law of Armed Conflict, Operational Law, Humanity, Jus Ad Bellum, Targeting, Principles, LOAC, Precision, Capture, Law Studies, Ihl, Kill, Collateral Damage, and Direct Participation in Hostilities
In July 2015, Indonesian authorities reportedly expressed concern over their apparent lack of legal tools to keep Islamists from spreading the extremist ideology of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (‘ISIS’) or from staging... more
In July 2015, Indonesian authorities reportedly expressed concern over their apparent lack of legal tools to keep Islamists from spreading the extremist ideology of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (‘ISIS’) or from staging terror attacks in the country. 1 As a nation whose leadership, until the Bali bombings in October 2002, had long denied the existence of the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah (‘JI’) within its territory, Indonesia has continued to face ambivalence over constructing more robust national security legislation and its enforcement. Such ambivalence is a pattern common to most of Southeast Asia because of pre-existing internal strife that has been plaguing these countries for many decades. 3 ‘When [foreign extremists fighting for ISIS] return to their countries ... it is not easy to predict what actions they might conduct’, as General Moeldoko, commanding general of the Indonesian military forces (Tentara Nasional Indonesia (‘TNI’)), told an audience in Sing...
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The policy of prevention and peacekeeping operations grew side by side in the Cold War era, aiming at keeping conflicts outside the sphere of bipolar world politics. This chapter examines the tension between the desire for the robust... more
The policy of prevention and peacekeeping operations grew side by side in the Cold War era, aiming at keeping conflicts outside the sphere of bipolar world politics. This chapter examines the tension between the desire for the robust operation of a collective security mechanism based on the UN Charter and the strong resistance of state sovereignty, which has underlain the development of doctrinal constraints without being subject to critical review upon peacekeeping in its preventive use. Although the systematic analysis of conflict prevention began in response to the request made by the 1992 Summit Meeting of the Security Council, the idea had already been expressed by the term preventive diplomacy in the early years of the UNs history. Consent has been generally seen as a fundamental basis for UN peacekeeping operations.Keywords: conflict prevention; Security Council; UN peacekeeping
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This contribution to the Agora assesses a number of the key legal issues arising from the South China Sea (Award) from the perspective of maritime law enforcement activities. Initially, the paper summarises relevant aspects of the Award,... more
This contribution to the Agora assesses a number of the key legal issues arising from the South China Sea (Award) from the perspective of maritime law enforcement activities. Initially, the paper summarises relevant aspects of the Award, before focussing on two distinct issues raised by the Philippines in the arbitration: a series of navigational incidents in the vicinity of Scarborough Shoal in 2012 and the routine presence of Chinese maritime enforcement vessels in the vicinity of Second Thomas Shoal. The paper analyses the ruling by the Arbital Tribunal in relation to each of these issues and then postulates implications that may arise for Australia. Concluding remarks suggest that States which have an interest in the region should not sit idle as to do so would likely see existing legal rights diminish.
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ABSTRACT Although the UN Security Council is often considered to have been fully activated only since the end of the Cold War, an optimistic view of the prospect for an active role of the Security Council overlooks the fact that the... more
ABSTRACT Although the UN Security Council is often considered to have been fully activated only since the end of the Cold War, an optimistic view of the prospect for an active role of the Security Council overlooks the fact that the Security Council has often failed in preventing or mininising armed conflicts due to the lack of careful investigation or the disregard of the results obtained through investigation. This study analyses the possibilities of restoring the significance and utilisation of investigation proprio motu for the maintenance of international peace and security. The consequential focus will be placed on the functions, the legal basis and the compulsory nature of investigation proprio motu by the Security Council, and the ensuing issue of effectiveness of its implementation.
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has achieved deeper regional market integration to lay a socio-economic foundation for the development of a regional community, yet inter-state trust is by no means assured as Southeast... more
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has achieved deeper regional market integration to lay a socio-economic foundation for the development of a regional community, yet inter-state trust is by no means assured as Southeast Asian nations remain steadfast in maintaining their political regime stability against external interference. However, through its institutional practices, ASEAN has emerged as a distinct model of security institution, while the region's contemporary security landscape has diversified with various non-traditional security issues. By looking beyond the veneer of diplomacy and prevailing political circumstances, this book examines the legal nature and form of ASEAN's authority to address diverse regional security issues. It provides a fresh perspective on ASEAN's role as a security institution. With an interdisciplinary analysis, this book reveals the normative role that ASEAN plays in facilitating the processes of norm development, localisation and internalisation as it deals with contemporary security challenges confronting Southeast Asia.
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The introduction of nanotechnology into our civil life and warfare is expected to influence the application and interpretation of the existing rules of international humanitarian law. This article examines the challenges posed to... more
The introduction of nanotechnology into our civil life and warfare is expected to influence the application and interpretation of the existing rules of international humanitarian law. This article examines the challenges posed to international humanitarian law by the widespread use of nanotechnology in light of four basic rules of international humanitarian law: (1) the obligation to ensure the legality of weapons; (2) distinction; (3) proportionality; and (4) precaution. It concludes by identifying three areas of concern, which arise from widespread use of nanotechnology, for the application of international humanitarian law.
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The principle of non-intervention remains a significant legal issue, particularly in Asia, for regional efforts to address a wide range of transnational security issues in the absence of a regional collective security mechanism. This... more
The principle of non-intervention remains a significant legal issue, particularly in Asia, for regional efforts to address a wide range of transnational security issues in the absence of a regional collective security mechanism. This article revisits the principle of non-intervention with a particular focus on the application and interpretation of the principle by Asian states for the purpose of identifying whether and in what respect an Asian approach or approaches can be found, and considering its implications for regional efforts to address transnational security issues. This article finds that the emerging regional norm of comprehensive security requires clear demarcation between the principle of non-intervention and the norm of comprehensive security, as well as an institutionalized mechanism to ensure that regional efforts to address transnational security issues are not used as a disguised form of intervention and that the fear of intervention does not impede those regional e...
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Recently increased tensions across East Asia over territorial and maritime disputes show glimpses of brinkmanship. However, the past experiences of Western colonization and Japan's imperialism within the region add complexity to those... more
Recently increased tensions across East Asia over territorial and maritime disputes show glimpses of brinkmanship. However, the past experiences of Western colonization and Japan's imperialism within the region add complexity to those disputes challenging our understanding of legal debates surrounding territorial and maritime disputes. This article examines the extent to which the relevant rules of international law are capable of providing “justice” by accommodating the unique historical contexts in the region in settling highly politically sensitive territorial and maritime claims. It finds that the existing rules of international law are more than capable of accommodating the peculiar historical contexts of East Asia in the resolution of territorial and maritime disputes, whilst acknowledging that certain ambiguities in the law are contributing to some of the current tensions that have arisen over these disputes.
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ABSTRACT The concept of the responsibility to protect, as agreed upon by world leaders in 2005, is too restrictive and qualifies their commitment to the responsibility to prevent. It is dubious whether the intensity and the character of... more
ABSTRACT The concept of the responsibility to protect, as agreed upon by world leaders in 2005, is too restrictive and qualifies their commitment to the responsibility to prevent. It is dubious whether the intensity and the character of the violence in East Timor and Kosovo in 1999 would have been enough to shift the responsibility to protect to the international community. This paper will address this conceptual gap, emphasising the need for finding a closer operational link between the responsibility to prevent and the responsibility to react and a normative link between the responsibility to protect and principles of international law.
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This introductory chapter outlines the general relationship between technological development and the conduct of warfare in the historical context. It then introduces the objective of the book, which is to critically examine the potential... more
This introductory chapter outlines the general relationship between technological development and the conduct of warfare in the historical context. It then introduces the objective of the book, which is to critically examine the potential legal challenges arising from the use of new technologies in warfare, and future directions of legal development. It proceeds on the premise that the fundamentally transformative impact of new technologies on the means and methods of warfare, and on the broader environment in which warfare is conducted, cannot be understood without specific characteristics of the technology and challenges each technology presents for both the law of armed conflict and the battlespace. Each chapter of this book is introduced in the broader context of the four thematic issues that emerged during the discussion among scholars and practitioners working in the field, held at the Workshop at the Australian National University in September 2012.
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The project which led to this volume focused upon examining two issues: The primary legal challenges arising from the use of new technologies in warfare, most particularly with regard to foreseeable humanitarian impacts within the... more
The project which led to this volume focused upon examining two issues: The primary legal challenges arising from the use of new technologies in warfare, most particularly with regard to foreseeable humanitarian impacts within the battlespace; and possible future directions of interpretation, application and progressive development in the law of armed conflict, in light of the challenges presented by the specific characteristics of each new form of technology. The prevailing view among scholars and practitioners at the summative Workshop held at the Australian National University in September 2012 was that the law of armed conflict, as it currently exists, remains flexible enough to meet the challenges posed by the introduction of new and anticipated technologies into warfare. Many chapters of the present volume have reinforced this view, whilst nevertheless identifying some of the seams where further, and more informed, debate is required in order to clarify the law in terms of its application or interpretation. This concluding chapter returns to the four thematic issues that emerged during the discussion at the September 2012 Workshop, and briefly reflects upon how the contributors to this volume have considered those themes and addressed the potential for the law of armed conflict to accommodate these varied—and highly variable—technological challenges.
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With the increased awareness of national security concerns associated with unauthorized disclosure of State secrets, the legal protection of State secrets on national security grounds has assumed renewed significance, while raising ever... more
With the increased awareness of national security concerns associated with unauthorized disclosure of State secrets, the legal protection of State secrets on national security grounds has assumed renewed significance, while raising ever growing concerns about its impact on freedom of information. Between these competing policy concerns lies a discrete area of law that defines and protects State secrets from unauthorized communication or disclosure. This article aims to ascertain the actual State practice concerning State secrets protection on national security grounds across different countries, and examines common challenges to the delimitation of national security grounds for State secrets protection in light of the changing national security environment.
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Research Interests: Engineering, Law, Publishing, International Law, Political Science, and 13 moreInternational Humanitarian Law, Information Technology Law, Nanotechnology, Military, Law of Armed Conflict, New Technologies, Social Science Research Network, Weapons, Academic research, Commissioning, International Law of Armed Conflicts, Offensive Realism, and Pace
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The idea of invisibility has long tantalized the human imagination. Once considered fantastical, recent advances have edged technology closer to the possibility of invisibility. On the battlefield, invisibility technology could be used to... more
The idea of invisibility has long tantalized the human imagination. Once considered fantastical, recent advances have edged technology closer to the possibility of invisibility. On the battlefield, invisibility technology could be used to cloak soldiers and military equipment without restraining the mobility or manoeuvrability of troops and equipment. These developments necessitate a consideration of how the Law of Armed Conflict should be interpreted and applied to the use of invisibility technology in warfare. In particular, invisibility raises questions concerning how to determine when the use of invisibility technology has crossed from lawful ruse to prohibited act of perfidy. This chapter explores how the use of invisibility to conceal the causal connection between an act of perfidy and an attack may fall within a grey area of the law.
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This book explores how the concept of security interacts with the rigid framework of international law to test the hypothesis that the system of public order among states is regulated under the rule of law.