This Chapter focuses on governmental use of private military and security companies (PMSCs) to evade the law of state responsibility, using offering as a case study of Russia’s deployment of a shadowy corporation known as the Wagner Group as a case study. The cChapter then suggests ways in which we might rethink the law of state responsibility in order to respond to the increasing threat of this sort of hybrid warfare. Drawing from scholarship on global legal pluralism, the cChapter argues for a less formalist and more functionalist analysis of the law of state responsibility. I I n the context of hybrid war, formalist conceptions of the state allow governments such as Russia to skirt state responsibility solely because there may be no formal contract between Russia and a PMSC such as the Wagner Group. One possible response then is to reinterpret Article 8 of the Articles of State Responsibility so that it looks at the real functional ties between a state actor and a PMSC, along with the “governmentality” of the function the PMSC performs.

Drone warfare is one of the most important trends in twenty-first-century conflict. This chapter surveys the history of drones – nonpiloted aircraft – and describes their basic features and how they differ from piloted aircraft and missiles. It assesses the advantages and disadvantages of using drones. The advantages include circumvention of some operational crew limitations; longer flight times; plausible deniability; and avoidance of friendly casualties. Whether drone strikes are effective, especially against terrorist and militant groups, is also considered. The chapter next works through the interwoven question of whether (certain types of) drone strikes are legal and/or ethical. It then turns to the political dimensions of how they are authorized, especially their implications for the separation of powers.The chapter then turns to the spread of drones to state and nonstate actors, and the frontiers in the future development of drone technology. The chapter applies many of these concepts to a quantitative study of whether drone strikes reduce terrorism, and a case study of US drone strikes on targets on Pakistani territory in the 2000s and 2010s.

Hybrid warfare is a widely interpreted and highly contested concept and also a label for opponents and targets in conflict or competition in international relations. It is often projected as being something underhand undertaken by the other, however, this chapter examines the conceptual and operational history of Western hybrid warfare. This refers to creating suitable environmental conditions in the information and cognitive domain as a means to subvert a target government and bring about regime change.

Chapter 1 introduces the book’s argument. Naming Ukraine’s war is controversial. Russia quickly appropriated the term “civil war,” cynically in order to claim noninvolvement. This flies in the face of evidence. The social science literature on civil war violence and barriers to settlements may be analytically useful, however, for understanding why the conflict in Ukraine was so difficult to bring to resolution in the 2015–2022 period. This book explains that Russia, after seizing Crimea, was reacting to events it could not control and sent troops only to areas of Ukraine where it knew it would face little resistance (the Eastern Donbas). Kremlin decision-makers misunderstood the attachment of the Russian-speaking population to the Ukrainian state and also failed to anticipate how that their intervention would transform Ukraine into a more cohesively “Ukrainian” polity.

The international community is too often focused on responding to the latest cyber attack instead of addressing the reality of pervasive and persistent cyber conflict. From ransomware against the city government of Baltimore to state-sponsored campaigns targeting electrical grids in Ukraine and the United States, we seem to have relatively little bandwidth left over to ask what we can hope for in terms of “peace” on the Internet, and how to get there. It’s also important to identify the long-term implications for such pervasive cyber insecurity across the public and private sectors, and how they can be curtailed. This edited volume analyzes the history and evolution of cyber peace and reviews recent international efforts aimed at promoting it, providing recommendations for students, practitioners, and policymakers seeking an understanding of the complexity of international law and international relations involved in cyber peace. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Chapter 5 explains the varieties of armed conflicts. Conflict status determines the law that applies to that conflict, including prohibitions and duties applicable to those involved. Conflict status is the first question a student should answer when looking at any armed conflict. This chapter details the factors that determine conflict status. Common Article 2 conflicts (the designation referring to the Article which is common to all four of the 1949 Geneva Conventions) are international armed conflicts. Those conflicts are discussed, as are common Article 3 conflicts, those between a nation and an armed opposition group – rebels or terrorists. Given that states beyond those directly involved may intervene, interfere, assist or impede one side or the other, this is a challenging but important chapter. It gives the student the information necessary to recognize any conflict’s status. Also discussed are recent developments in conflict classification, for example, gray zone conflicts and hybrid warfare, as well as the LOAC of cross-border terrorist attacks and the lawful ability of attacked state forces to pursue and engage those terrorists across a neighboring state’s border.

Vastly more than a regional study, the contributors to this work seek to provide a comprehensive and probative assessment through a 360-degree examination of a strategically vital area. Going beyond historical analysis, both regional and country-specific, this book evaluates overarching issues within a larger analytical context, from the political to the cultural, in a dynamic analysis that melds theory and considerations of practical developments in order to better understand causality and provide an opportunity to search for patterns and divine lessons. It is also a story of a remarkable transformation, now three decades old, that has been ripe with opportunities but also replete with caveats. Judging success, assessing legacies, and identifying the motor forces for change are enormously difficult but also necessary tasks. It is also essential to appreciate that most of these states committed themselves to democratization and marketization, and that involves a perennial struggle where a chance for progress and the risk of repression compete continuously and where the balance between the two can easily shift. Consequently, it is crucial to identify the early warning signs of trouble, and be aware that impressive successes have not eliminated present and future dangers of regression.