Lebanon War Bolsters Emerging Law-of-War Consensus

As the proverbial dust settles over the battlefields of southern Lebanon, a major change in the landscape of legal regulation of warfare is taking hold. This change, first exposed by the military operations launched by the United States against Al Qaeda, has led to the widespread expectation that conflicts between states and transnational non-state entities must be governed by the laws of war, a body of international law historically applied to conflicts between states. While the extent of combat and associated destruction witnessed by the world in the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah may suggest that such a proposition is unremarkable, and perhaps even essential, it in fact represents a fundamental shift in the traditionally understood paradigm of law of war applicability.

Throughout history, professional armed forces have observed limits on wartime conduct. For centuries, these limits were often self-imposed, taking the form of internal codes of conduct. These limits, or "rules," gradually ripened into accepted norms of customary international law ...