By failing to address 'new wars' international law has added to insecurity. Is it time for a second generation human security resting upon the laws of humanity?

This event launches Christine Chinkin and Mary Kaldor's new book International Law and New Wars, which examines how international law fails to address the contemporary 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, largely constructed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, rests to a great extent on the outmoded concept of war drawn from European experience - inter-state clashes involving battles between regular and identifiable armed forces. The book shows how different approaches are associated with different interpretations of international law, and, in some cases, this has dangerously weakened the legal restraints on war established after 1945. It puts forward a practical case for what it defines as second generation human security and the implications this carries for international law.

Christine Chinkin is Director of the Centre for Women, Peace and Security.

Mary Kaldor is Director of the Civil Society and  Human Security Research Unit.

Javier Solana is President at ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and Distinguished Fellow at The Brookings Institution.

Professor Toby Dodge is Director of the LSE Middle East Centre, a Professor in the International Relations Department at LSE, and a Senior Consulting Fellow for the Middle East, International Institute for Strategic Studies, London.

The Centre for Women, Peace and Security (@LSE_WPS) is a leading academic space for scholars, practitioners, activists, policy-makers and students to develop strategies to promote justice, human rights and participation for women in conflict-affected situations around the world.      

Twitter Hashtag for this event: #LSEnewwars

Podcast & Video

A podcast and video of this event is available to download from International Law and New Wars

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