The Paradox of Forever War and the Concept of the Enemy in International Law

About

The boundaries between war and peace compartmentalize violence in the world. When they are blurred, violence is de-compartmentalized, as war merges with, and contaminates, routine political activity. Two implications follow. First, long wars occur, because politics does not end. Second, foreign and domestic policy becomes militarized, with the attendant consequences for civil liberties, public debt, and executive power.

This seminar will present a historical account of how and why evolving concepts of the enemy in international law have influenced the boundaries between war and peace, specifically in terms of encouraging either clearly delimited or open-ended conflicts.

This account has a contemporary problem in mind: the tendency, driven by the globalizing effects of the information revolution, for conflicts increasingly to inhabit gray zones between war and peace, which de-compartmentalizes violence in the world. The speaker will argue that scholars and policymakers should seek so far as possible to swim against the current of this trend and adopt legal and strategic concepts that re-compartmentalize global violence.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.