Send us a text

In this episode, Simon speaks with Dr Katharine Fortin about non-international armed conflicts, focussing on the intersections between IHL, international human rights law and armed non-State actors.

Dr Katharine Fortin is a senior lecturer of public international law and human rights at Utrecht University's Netherlands Institute of Human Rights. She is the Editor in Chief of the Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights and founder of the Armed Groups and International Law blog. Her book The Accountability of Armed Groups under Human Rights Law (OUP, 2017) won the Lieber Prize in 2018. She is Co-Investigator on the Beyond Compliance Consortium: Building Evidence on Promoting Restraint by Armed Actors. Katharine has a LLM and PhD from the Utrecht University. She is a qualified solicitor in the UK and previously worked at Norton Rose Fulbright, the Council of Churches of Sierra Leone, the ICC and the ICTY.

Additional resources:

• Fortin, Katharine ‘Mapping Calamities: Capturing the Competing Legalities of Spaces under the Control of armed non State Actors without erasing everyday civilian life’ (2023) 8(1) Social Science and Humanities Open
• Matthew Bamber-Zryd, 'ICRC engagement with armed groups in 2024' Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog (31 October 2024)
• Katharine Fortin and Ezequiel Heffes (eds), Armed Groups and International Law: In the Shadowland of Legality and Illegality (Edward Elgar, 2023)
• Naz Modirzadeh, 'Cut These Words: Passion and International Law of War Scholarship' (2020) 61(1) Harvard International Law Journal 1.
• Zoe Pearson, 'Spaces of International Law' (2008) 17 Griffith Law Review 489.
• Helen Kinsella, The Image Before the Weapon: A Critical History of the Distinction between Combatant and Civilian (Cornell University Press, 2015)
• Kieran McIvoy, 'Beyond Legalism: Towards a Thicker Understanding of Transitional Justice' (2007) 34(4) Journal of Law and Society 411.
• Sally Engle Merry, The Seductions of Quantification: Measuring Human Rights, Gender Violence and Sex Trafficking (University of Chicago Press, 2016)
• Ana Arjona, Rebelocracy: Social Order in the Colombian Civil War (CUP, 2016)
• Zachariah Cherian Mampilly, Rebel Rulers: Insurgent

Send us a text

In this episode, Simon speaks to Professor Helen Kinsella and Associate Professor Giovanni Mantilla, two leading experts on the history and formation of the Geneva Conventions and IHL more generally. They discuss the negotiations leading up the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol, exploring some of the political tensions that sits behind the provisions of these key legal texts. This includes how the law treats non-state actors and non-international armed conflict, as well who gets the right to wage war. 

Helen Kinsella is a Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses on the theorization of gender and armed conflict and she is currently working on a book on sleep in war and another on the histories of the laws of war through the United States' wars against Native peoples.  She is the author of The Image before the Weapon (Cornell University Press, 2011), which won the 2012 Sussex International Theory Prize. Helen has a PhD in Political Science and an MA in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a BA in Political Science and Gender Studies from Bryn Mawr College.

Giovanni Mantilla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University, Fellow of Christ’s College, and Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law. His research focusses on the operation of multilateralism, particularly practices of social pressure and pressure management in diplomacy, global governance, and international legal processes. His book Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2020) received the 2021 Francis Lieber award.

Additional Resources

• Helen M Kinsella and Giovanni Mantilla, 'Contestation before Compliance: History, Politics, and Power in International Humanitarian Law' (2020) 64(3) International Studies Quarterly 649.
• Helen Kinsella, 'Settler Empire and the United States: Francis Lieber on the Laws of War' (2023) 117(2) American Political Science Review 629.  
• Vasuki Nesiah, International Conflict Feminism: Theory, Practice, Challenges (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
• Thomas Gregory, Weaponizing Civilian Protection (Oxford University Press, 2025)
• Tom Dannenbaum, 'Siege Starvation: A War Crime of Societal Torture' (2021) 22(2) Chicago Journal of International Law 368.
• Boyd Van Dijk, Preparing for War: The Making of the Geneva Conventions (Oxford University Press, 2022) 
• Craig Jones, The War Lawyers: The United States, Israel and Juridical Warfare (Oxford University Press, 2020)
• Janina Dill, Legitimate Targets? Social Construction, International Law and US Bombing (Cambridge University Press, 2014)

Send us a text

In this series introduction, Dr Lauren Sanders and Dr Simon McKenzie talk about the Geneva Conventions, and what is in store for the Law and the Future of War podcast over the next few months.

Send us a text

This episode is a recording of the  Asia-Pacific Institute for Law and Security  webinar hosted on 21 November 2024 on the functional approach to the legal review of autonomous weapon systems (AWS).

AWS are no longer limited to science fiction. Conflicts in the Ukraine and Gaza demonstrate an increased trend toward the use of autonomy in the use of force in armed conflict. This webinar will focus on the legal review obligation under Article 36 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, and will consider how states can determine the legality of AWS. The event will launch a new book by Dr Damian Copeland on the topic and include a panel of experts discussing the challenges in ensuring the development and use of AWS are lawful and ethical.

Ms Vanessa Wood (Australia’s Ambassador for Arms Control Counter-Proliferation) will make some opening remarks, followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Lauren Sanders (APILS). Dr Wen Zhou (ICRC Legal Division), Ms Netta Goussac (SIPRI), Dr Natalia Jevglevskaja (APILS) and Dr Damian Copeland (APILS) will speak on the panel. Dr Rain Liivoja (APILS) will host the webinar.

See Dr Copeland's book here:  A Functional Approach to the Legal Review of Autonomous Weapon Systems, Brill International Humanitarian Law Series Volume 72, 2024. 

Send us a text

In this episode we continue our futures mini-series, and speak with Dr Simon Ng and Ms Clare East about the challenges of adopting novel technology and influencing its regulation. In particular, as the Chief Scientist and Manager of Law, Regulation and Assurance at the Trusted Autonomous Defence Cooperative Research Centre, we hope to tease out the regulatory and engineering challenges associated with advancing adoption of novel military technologies that have been learned through TAS’ tenure.

Dr Simon Ng is Chief Technology Officer at TAS. Graduating from Monash University with a PhD in 1998, he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at CSIRO before joining DSTG, where he developed techniques for military operations experimentation, and applied systems methods to surveillance and response, space operations and autonomous aerial systems. He was previously DSTG Group Leader for the Joint Systems Analysis and Aerial Autonomous Systems Groups, and Associate Director of the Defence Science Institute. He is Australia’s National Lead on The Technical Cooperation Program Technical Panel “UAS Integration into the Battlespace”, and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. 

Clare East is General Manager – Law, Regulation & Assurance at TAS, and Director of East Consulting Services. Clare is a lawyer by background with significant expertise in modern regulatory approaches, and has helped a range of different organisations respond to and harness the challenges and opportunities posed by rapid change. Clare has more than ten years in public policy and regulation, having started her career at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet before moving on to a number of private and public sector roles, including as Manager, Maritime Regulation at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and Director, Regulatory Standards and Policy at the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.

Additional resources:

• Alondra Nelson, The Right Way to Regulate AI: Focus on Its Possibilities, Not Its Perils, Foreign Affairs, 12 January 2024
• J. Robert Oppenheimer,  International Control of Atomic Energy, Foreign Affairs,  January 1948
• Kazuo Ishiguro,  Klara and the Sun, 2021
• Robotic and Autonomous Systems Gateway (RAS Gateway), Trusted Autonomous Systems 
• Rachel Horne (2024) Navigating to smoother regulatory waters for Australian commercial vessels capable of remote or autonomous operation. PhD by Publication, Queensland University of Technology.
• Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources,  The Australian Government’s interim response to safe and responsible AI consultation, January 2024

Send us a text

In this episode we hear from Professor Dale Stephens on the long-awaited release of The Woomera Manual on the International Law of Military Space Operations, how it came about, what it is intended to do, and where international law might be headed in relation to military space operations - as well as the challenges in drafting an international law Manual dealing with the law in a highly changing and novel domain.  Released in May this year, the Woomera Manual focuses on the law as it is, and creates a set of Rules and accompanying Commentary dealing with international law in a military space context.

Professor Dale Stephens CSM FAAL is a Professor at the University of Adelaide and a Captain in the Royal Australian Navy Reserve. He has occupied senior legal positions in the Australian Defence Force and undertook numerous operational deployments. He is Director of the Adelaide University Research Unit on Military Law and Ethics. He researches and teaches in the areas of International Law, Space Law, Military Operations Law and Law of Armed Conflict. He is Chair of the SA Red Cross IHL Committee. He was awarded his LL.M and SJD from Harvard Law School and is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law.

Additional Resources:
The Woomera Manual
The Artemis Accords
OEWG on Responsible Behaviours in Space

Send us a text

In this episode we dive into issues of human-machine teaming, with human factors engineer Jan Maarten Schraagen. Having edited the recently released book, Responsible Use of AI in Military Systems, Jan Maarten is an expert on how brittle technologies influence joint cognitive system performance. In this episode, in addition to exploring the book, we explore the outcomes of the 2023 REAIM Summit and what we can hope for from the 2024 Summit;  talk about multidisciplinarity in the responsible military AI debate; and how we should be thinking about capability envelope of military AI - that is, how it can or should be restricted in the conditions under which it can operate. 

Jan Maarten Schraagen is a cognitive systems engineer at TNO, and studies how brittle technologies influence joint cognitive system performance. He is a human factors specialist with broad experience in optimizing work processes and teamwork design. He is particularly interested in making work safe, productive and healthy, and improving resilience in sociotechnical work systems.

Additional resources:

• Jan Maarten Schraagen (ed), Responsible Use of AI in Military Systems, CRC Press, 2024
• Ekelhof, M.A.C. (2018). Lifting the Fog of Targeting: “Autonomous Weapons” and Human Control through the Lens of Military Targeting. Naval War College Review, 71(3), 61-94.
• Ekelhof, M.A.C. (2019). Moving beyond semantics on autonomous weapons: Meaningful human control in operation. Global Policy, 10(3), 343-348.
• Endsley, M.R. (2017). From here to autonomy: Lessons learned from human-automation research. Human Factors, 59(1), 5-27.
• Taddeo, M., & Blanchard, A. (2022). A comparative analysis of the definitions of autonomous weapons systems. Science and Engineering Ethics, 28, 37-59.
• Herbert Simon, Bounded Rationality, Utility and Probability, NPA, 1990
• Peeters, M.M.M., van Diggelen, J., van den Bosch, K., Bronkhorst, A., Neerincx, M.A., Schraagen, J.M., Raaijmakers, S. (2021). Hybrid collective intelligence in a human–AI society. AI and Society, 36(1), 217-238.
• Schraagen, J.M.C., Barnhoorn, J.S., Van Schendel, J., & Van Vught, W. (2022). Supporting teamwork in hybrid multi-team systems. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 23(2), 199-220.
• Van der Kleij, R., Schraagen, J.M.C., Cadet, B., & Young, H.J. (2022). Developing decision support for cybersecurity threat and incident managers. Computers & Security, 113, 102535.
• Schraagen, J.M.C. (2023). Responsible use of AI in military systems: Prospects and challenges. Ergonomics, 66(11), 1719 – 1729.

Send us a text

Part of the ongoing debate about the lawfulness of autonomy in military systems in the manner in which the technology integrates with and interacts with its human masters.  The term Meaningful Human Control (or MHC) has garnered particular relevance in this debate. Today we speak with Dr Lena Trabucco about her upcoming OpinioJuris Symposium on Military AI and the Law of Armed Conflict, co-edited with Dr Magda Packholska, on this issue, as well as her work on legal challenges associated with emerging technology more broadly.

Lena is a research fellow, a visiting scholar at the Stockton Center for International Law at the US Naval War College, and research fellow at the Technology, Law and Security Program at American University College of Law and the University of Copenhagen. Her research focuses on the intersection of international law and emerging military technology, particularly autonomous weapon systems. She has multiple projects examining human control throughout an autonomous weapon system life cycle. Previously, she was a post-doctoral researcher at the Centre for Military Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Lena received a PhD in law from the University of Copenhagen and a PhD in international relations from Northwestern University.

Additional resources:

• Opinio Juris Symposium on Military AI and the Law of Armed Conflict
• Kevin Jon Heller, 'The Concept of 'The Human' in the Critique of Autonomous Weapons', 14 Harvard National Security Journal (2023)
• Magdalena Pacholska, 'Military Artificial Intelligence and the Principle of Distinction: A State Responsibility Perspective', Israel Law Review (2022), 1–21
• Rebecca Crootof, 'A Meaningful Floor for 'Meaningful Human Control', Temple International & Comparative Law Journal, Vol. 30, 2016
• Kenneth Payne's Substack
• Killer Robot Cocktail Party (Lena and Brad Boyd's substack)

Send us a text

In this episode, Lauren Sanders is speaking with fellow LFW researcher, Renato Wolf about the issue of determining where legal obligations lie in the conduct of attacks, carried out by AWS. In particular they delve into his research about the Art 57 term ‘those who plan or decide attacks’ to see how that maps onto AWS, how that features in the AWS debate and what needs to be thought about in operationalising this legal obligation.

Renato Wolf is an international lawyer who served as a legal adviser to the Swiss Armed Forces for nearly ten years. He was deployed to Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina, and then spent two years working as a legal advisor to the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Unit at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. He holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Law with a specialization in international law from the University of Bern, Switzerland, as well as a Master of Arts in War in the Modern World from the King’s College London. He is currently a research fellow at the University of Queensland and finalizing his PhD on the legal review of autonomous weapons.

Send us a text

In this episode, Dr Lauren Sanders speaks with Professor Stuart Casey-Maslen about Directed Energy Weapons. They traverse the existing legal controls on these weapons, and speak about the potential for future regulation of novel uses of energy weapons in armed conflict. 

This conversation preceded a presentation by Dr Casey-Maslen, Dr Sanders and  Dr Altman for UNIDIR, which was a side event to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Meeting of States Parties, held in November 2023. 

Stuart Casey-Maslen is an international lawyer and Professor at the University of Pretoria, specialising in the use of force and the protection of civilians, and he has published numerous books and articles on this topic. He is also an Associate Fellow within the Global Fellowship Initiative of the GCSP. 

Additional Resources: 

• United Nations Human Rights Guidance on Less-Lethal Weapons in Law Enforcement, 01 June 2020.
• ICRC Expert Meeting on Legal Reviews of Weapons and the SlrUS Project.
• A/78/324: Thematic study on the global trade in weapons, equipment and devices used by law enforcement and other public authorities that are capable of inflicting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, 24 Aug 23.

Send us a text

As part of our ‘futures’ mini-series, in this episode we are looking specifically at Algorithmic Futures, with hosts of the podcast of the same name: Dr Zena Assaad and Dr Elizabeth Williams, both from ANU. Today we are going to specifically focus on the breadth of the design and uncertainty problem for capabilities augmented by algorithms.  

Elizabeth T. Williams is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU).  She has a PhD in experimental nuclear structure from Yale University. Since joining the ANU in 2012, Liz has held an ARC DECRA Fellowship, mucked about with accelerators, code, and superheavy elements, and explored complexity in real-world technological systems. She also led the creation of the hands-on half of the Masters of Applied Cybernetics, convened the School of Cybernetics 2021 PhD cohort program, and will soon convene the newly created Nuclear Systems major and minor for the School of Engineering’s Bachelor of Engineering programs.

Zena Assaad is a senior research fellow within the School of Engineering at the Australian National University (ANU). Zena studied a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and completed a PhD exploring decision-making under uncertainty to support strategic air traffic flow management. Zena currently holds a fellowship position under the ethics uplift program with trusted autonomous systems, exploring human-machine teaming; and is also a fellow with the Australian Army Research Centre researching autonomy in swarms and human-machine teams.

Additional Resources:

• Algorithmic Futures - podcast by Zena Assaad and Liz Williams
• Klara and the Sun - K Ishaguro, 2021
• The Ironies of Automation - L Bainbridge, Automatica, Vol. 19, No. 6. pp. 775 779, 1983 

Send us a text

Continuing our future of war series, this episode dives into the legal implications of increasing transparency of the battlespace as a result of technological change; and looks at developments in biological warfare that challenge the long-standing prohibition on biological weapons at international law. We speak with Rob Lawless from the Leiber Institute, at the Westpoint Academy to hear more. 

Robert Lawless is an Associate Professor in the Department of Law at the United States Military Academy, West Point. He teaches various courses, including military law and the law of armed conflict. He is also the Research Director of the Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare and one of the editors of Articles of War.  

Professor Lawless previously spent ten years as an active-duty military officer in the U.S. Army JAG Corps., serving in several positions advising commanders on legal issues. He also spent almost three years as an Army litigator, representing both the U.S. government and individual soldiers in courts-martial and other military justice forums. 

Additional resources:

• Lieber Studies Series
• Articles of War Blog
• Professor Nasu's works on nanotechnology
• 1925 Geneva Protocol
• Biological Weapons Convention
• Sean Watts, Law-of-War Perfidy, 219 Mil L. Rev. 106 (2014)

Send us a text

In this third episode in our futures mini-series, we continue our scoping of the utility of seeking to predict the future of war; before deep diving into emerging and disruptive technologies. Recorded in late September 2023, we are speaking with Artur Gruszczak about the Future of War, and his recently edited Handbook on the same topic, released by Routledge this September.

Artur Gruszczak holds a PhD in Political Science from Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Currently he holds an appointment there as an Associate Professor of Political Science, Chair of National Security at the Faculty of International and Political Studies.  Since 2014 he has been Faculty Member of the European Academy Online run by the Centre international de formation européenne in Nice. His academic interests and research areas include: security studies, EU area of freedom, security and justice, intelligence cooperation in the European Union, and the evolution of modern warfare.

Additional resources:

•  Handbook of the Future of Warfare, Edited By Artur Gruszczak, Sebastian Kaempf, Routledge, 2023
• The Weaponisation of Everything, Mark Galeotti, Yale University Press, 2023
• New and Old Wars, Mary Kaldor, Stanford University Press, 2012
• Pearl Harbour: Warning and Decision, Roberta Wohlstetter, Stanford University Press, 1962
• Theorising Future Conflict, Mark Lacy, Routledge 2024.
• War Transformed, Mick Ryan 2022. 
• The Future of War: A History, Lawrence Freedman 2018.
• Warrior Geeks, Christopher Coker, 2013.

Send us a text

Recorded in early September 2023,  this episode continues our futures mini-series, where we speak with Dr Ian Langford and Professor David Killcullen about the future of war in the Indo-Pacific region. In this episode we will be getting a download on what the change in geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific means for Australia, and how that might impact choices relating to technology, acquisitions and their subsequent use and regulation; as well as discussing what the future of proxy warfare and modern counterinsurgency might look like.

Dr Ian Langford, DSC and Bars, is a member of a member of UNSW’s Future Operations Research Group and is a strategic adviser with UBH Group, a leading Sovereign Information Domain (SID) company. Dr Langford is a regular contributor to the Australian Army Research Centre, and in addition to being a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the School of Advanced Warfighting, he has recently retired from the Australian Army as a Brigadier where he filled multiple senior roles including – relevant to our discussion today – as the Army’s Director General of Future Land Warfare and the Head of Land Capability.

Dr David Kilcullen is a former soldier and diplomat, and a scholar of guerrilla warfare, terrorism, urbanisation and the future of conflict, who served 25 years for the Australian and United States governments. During the Iraq War, he served in Baghdad as a member of the Joint Strategic Assessment Team, then as Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor, Multi-National Force Iraq in 2007, before becoming Special Advisor for Counterinsurgency to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on counterinsurgency; and in addition to holding senior academic roles across a number of institutions, he has written six books on counterinsurgency.

Additional resources:
-  Australian Defence Strategic Review
- USMC Stand-In Force Concept
- UK Future Commando Force Concept

Send us a text

In this episode, we conclude our interview with Dr Charles Adeogun-Phillips, discussing guilty pleas and their development in international criminal law.

Dr Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips is an accomplished international lawyer and former lead international prosecutor. He founded the cross-border law firm of Charles Anthony LLP, following a distinguished legal career at the UN, wherein he successfully led teams of international prosecutors in 12 precedent-setting genocide trials before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, making him arguably one of the most experienced and successful genocide prosecutors in history. In 2021, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a transferring Solicitor, by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and practises as a Barrister from the prestigious Guernica 37 (International Justice) Chambers in London and The Hague. In 2022, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by his alma mater, Warwick University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of international criminal law. He contributed to the book International Criminal Investigations, Law, and Practice—“The Challenges of International Investigations and Prosecutions: Perspectives of a Prosecutor” published by Eleven International, The Hague in 2018. He is the focal point for Nigeria at the ICC Bar Association.

Additional Resources 

• Nancy Combs
• Kosovo Specialist Chambers 
• Special Panels for Serious Crimes (East Timor).
  
  

Send us a text

In this interview, we are speaking with Dr Charles Adeogun-Phillips about the history of guilty pleas in international criminal law, as an author of a chapter on the same topic, as part of the edited works, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World. The challenges associated with the running of international criminal trials are extensive, and establishing a process for plea bargaining, to satisfactorily address some of the legal challenges associated with atrocity crimes, is an even more delicate one.  

Today we are talking with Dr Adeogun-Phillips about how this process has evolved over the course of the ad hoc tribunals, and what plea bargaining means in terms of accountability for international criminal offences. 

Dr Charles A. Adeogun-Phillips is an accomplished international lawyer and former lead international prosecutor. He founded the cross-border law firm of Charles Anthony LLP, following a distinguished legal career at the UN, wherein he successfully led teams of international prosecutors in 12 precedent-setting genocide trials before the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, making him arguably one of the most experienced and successful genocide prosecutors in history. In 2021, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales as a transferring Solicitor, by the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and practises as a Barrister from the prestigious Guernica 37 (International Justice) Chambers in London and The Hague. In 2022, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) by his alma mater, Warwick University, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the development of international criminal law. He contributed to the book International Criminal Investigations, Law, and Practice—“The Challenges of International Investigations and Prosecutions: Perspectives of a Prosecutor” published by Eleven International, The Hague in 2018. He is the focal point for Nigeria at the ICC Bar Association.

Send us a text

We continue this international criminal law mini-series by speaking with Natacha Bracq, who wrote a chapter on gender and sexual-based violence in Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of  Accountability for Africa and the World, which deals with a range of issues impacting contemporary ICL practice in Africa and around the world. 

Her chapter, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: What Legacy for the New ICC Prosecutor?  focuses on the International Criminal Court specifically,  highlighting that the court still struggles to effectively address such crimes and continues to repeat the errors of the past.

Natacha works as a Legal Advisor with Dignity, the Danish Institute against Torture, and is also the founder of the first blog entirely dedicated to ICL in the French language (www.blogdip.org). Previously, amongst other roles, she worked as a lawyer at the Paris Bar and as the  Senior Officer for Training and Capacity Building at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. She has worked with Wayne Jordash QC before various international tribunals including the ICJ, ICTY, and ICC. 

Additional Resources: 

• Prosecuting Sexual and Gender-Based Crimes in the International Criminal Court,  Rosemary Grey, 2019 
• Prosecuting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence at the ICTY, edited by Baron Serge Brammertz and Michelle Jarvis, 2016 
• International Protocol on the Documentation and Investigation of Sexual Violence in Conflict, June 2014, from the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office
• The Hague Principles on Sexual Violence
• The Murad Code 
  
  

Send us a text

We start our futures mini-series by speaking with an eminent military historian on the future of warfare. In this episode we are delighted to be joined by Sir Lawrence Freedman. Recorded in September 2023 he joins us to talk about the future of warfare, having regard to his approach to predicting future war, as outlined in The Future of War: A History; and the update to this commentary, taking into account the lessons to be learned from the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine.: Modern Warfare: Lessons from Ukraine.

Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman is Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King's College London. Elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1995 and awarded the CBE in 1996, he was appointed Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign in 1997. In 2003, he was awarded the KCMG. In June 2009, he was appointed to serve as a member of the official inquiry into Britain and the 2003 Iraq War. He has written widely on international history, strategic theory and nuclear weapons issues, as well as commenting on current security issues.

Among his books are Strategy: A History (2013, OUP) and Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine (2023, Penguin).

You can read more of Freedman's commentary on his substack, Comment is Freed.

Additional resources:
Lawrence Freedman: Modern Warfare, Lessons from Ukraine (2023, A Lowy Institute Paper/Penguin)
David Patreus and Andrew Roberts: Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine (2023, Harper Collins)
Mick Ryan: War Transformed (2022, Naval Institute Press).
Mick Ryan's substack: Futura Doctrina
Phillip O'Brien's substack: Phillip's Newsletter

Send us a text

We start this international criminal law mini-series by speaking with Mr Takeh Sendze, who is the editor of a recently published book, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues - Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World, which deals with a range of issues impacting contemporary ICL practice in Africa and around the world.  

Takeh B.K. Sendze is a Cameroonian lawyer who received an LL.B. Honours degree from the University of Buea, Cameroon, in 1999 and an LL.M. in International Law from the University of Hull, UK, in 2002. He is an advocate of the New York State (USA) and Cameroon Bar Associations. He is currently a Legal Officer with the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, with almost two decades worth of professional experience in the fields of International Law, International Humanitarian Law, International Criminal Law/prosecution and International Human Rights. He is an experienced public speaker, trainer, mentor, guest lecturer and community leader.

Additional Resources 

• Takeh's most recent publication, Contemporary International Criminal Law Issues: Contributions in Pursuit of Accountability for Africa and the World, edited alongside Adesola Adeboyejo,  Howard Morrison and Sophia Ugwu
• The International Law Series, edited by William A. Schabas
• Contemporary Issues Facing the International Criminal Court,  Richard H. Steinberg
• International Criminal Investigations: Law and Practice, Adejoké Babington-Ashaye, Aimée Comrie, Akingbolahan Adeniran 

Send us a text

In this episode in the BarbieHeimer series, we focus on the history of the Manhattan Project and the accuracy of the Oppenheimer movie. We are speaking with nuclear historian Chris Griffith, about the history, and consequences of the atomic age. As a warning, if you haven’t seen the film we will be talking about the movie’s plot lines and breaking down some of its scenes!

Chris is an atomic historian who has created the online archive AtomicArchive, which is aimed at creating content to help the general public understand the science, history, and consequences of the atomic age. He has recently written for the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists to break down the historical accuracy of the film.

Additional Resources: 

• Chris Griffith, 'A Manhattan Project historian comments on ‘Oppenheimer’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientist, 28 Jul 2023.
•  Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan, The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (3rd ed, 1977)
• The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists 
• National Security Archive - The George Washington University
• Alec Wellerstein's webpage, and 'NUKEMAP' to simulate the effects of a nuclear explosion anywhere on the map. 

Send us a text

 Today we continue our ‘BarbieHeimer’  (or Barbenheimer) series, and are talking today about the meme itself. Is it appropriate to mash these two films together? Is this frivolity making light of the serious impacts of nuclear weapons and the need for a refocus on non-proliferation and disarmament efforts? We speak with a scholar of Visual Politics and Visual Research Methods – Emily Faux - whose doctoral studies focus on what pop culture can tell us about nuclear weapons.

Emily is a PhD candidate at Newcastle University, UK. Her thesis investigates nuclear weapons and war through popular film, television, and video game. She is interested in the contemporary story and popular imagination of nuclear weapons and war, as it exists in the current geopolitical climate. Emily teaches at the University of Leeds and is a member of the FemNukes network, a contributor for HighlyNRiched and has completed both the EU's Young Women in Non-Proliferation and Disarmament mentorship scheme and the University of California's Public Policy and Nuclear Threats course.

Edited by Rosie Cavdarski.

Additional resources:

• Emily Faux: What Barbie can teach us about nuclear weapons, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, 3 August 2023
• Emily Faux:  The Untold Stories Behind “Oppenheimer” , InkStick, 18 Jul 2023
• Nukespeak: the Media and the Bomb, edited by Crispin Aubrey 
• John Mecklin,  An extended interview with Christopher Nolan, director of Oppenheimer,  17 July 2023, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Jenny Johnston, Filmmaker on a Mission, 16 August 2020, N Square.

Send us a text

In this 'BarbieHeimer' special episode, we return to the plastic doll, to talk about materialism, symbolism and the souvenirs in international law.  Emily Crawford and Jacqueline Mowbray walk us through their Souvenirs in International Law exhibit and project; and where Barbie features in their exhibit, as well as introducing us to Doudou Louis, the Louis Vuitton UNICEF Bear. 

To submit your own international law souvenir:  @atthevanishingpoint on Instagram.

Professor Emily Crawford is at the University of Sydney Law School, where she teaches and researches in international law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law. She has published widely in the field of international humanitarian law, including three monographs (The Treatment of Combatants and Insurgents under the Law of Armed Conflict (OUP 2010), Identifying the Enemy: Civilian Participation in Hostilities (OUP 2015) and Non-Binding Norms in International Humanitarian Law: Efficacy, Legitimacy and Legality (OUP 2021)) and a textbook (International Humanitarian Law (with Alison Pert, 2nd edition, CUP 2020)). She is an associate of the Sydney Centre for International Law at the University of Sydney, and a co-editor of the Journal of International Humanitarian Studies.

Associate Professor Jacqueline Mowbray also at the  University of Sydney Law School, is the external legal adviser to Australia's Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. Her work uses critical theory to explore the operation of international law, and focuses on international law and language policy, and economic, social and cultural rights. Her monograph Linguistic Justice: International Law and Language Policy was published by OUP in 2012. Her second monograph, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Commentary, Cases, and Materials (co-authored with Saul and Kinley) was winner of the 2015 American Society of International Law Certificate of Merit. 

Additional Resources:
Jessie Hohmann and Daniel Joyce (eds), International Law's Objects, OUP, 2018.
Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste, HUP, 1987.
Marcel Mauss, The Gift, Routledge, 1950.

For Barbie about town, see @intlawbarbie on Twitter/X! 

Send us a text

In this, the first of our Special Series on the BarbieHeimer phenomenon, we speak with international law of the sea expert, Professor Don Rothwell to find out what all the controversy was about in relation to the banning of the Barbie movie in Vietnam; the 9-Dash line; and the importance of maps in international law. 

Professor Donald R Rothwell is one of Australia’s leading experts in International Law with specific focus on the law of the sea; law of the polar regions; use of force and implementation of international law within Australia. He is the author of 28 books and over 200 book chapters and articles including, with Tim Stephens, The International Law of the Sea 3rd ed, (IN PRESS). His most recent work is Islands and International Law (Hart: 2022).

Major career works include The Polar Regions and the Development of International Law (CUP, 1996), and International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives 3rd (CUP: 2018).

Rothwell is also Editor-in-Chief of the Brill Research Perspectives in Law of the Sea. From 2012-2018 he was Rapporteur of the International Law Association (ILA) Committee on ‘Baselines under the International Law of the Sea’.  Rothwell was previously Challis Professor of International Law and Director of the Sydney Centre for International and Global Law, University of Sydney (2004-2006), where he had taught since 1988. He has acted as a consultant or been a member of expert groups for UNEP, UNDP, IUCN, the Australian Government, and acted as advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

In 2012 Rothwell was appointed an inaugural ANU Public Policy Fellow, and in 2015 elected as Fellow to the Australian Academy of Law. He is a regular media commentator on international law issues and has written over 100 opinion comments, including for all of the major daily newspapers in Australia and ABC Online ‘The Drum. 

Additional Resources:

• Don Rothwell, What is the ‘nine-dash line’ and what does it have to do with the Barbie movie?, The Conversation, 4 July 2023 (images of the Barbie 8-Dash Line and the real 9-Dash Line are embedded in this story).

• Erik Franckx and Marco Benatar, ‘Dots and Lines in the South China Sea: Insights from the Law of Map Evidence’ (2012) 2 Asian Journal of International Law 89-118.

• Z. Gao and B. Jia, ‘The Nine-Dash Line in the South China Sea: History, Status, and Implications’ (2013) 107 (1) American Journal of International Law 98-123.

• Communications received with regard to the joint submission made by Malaysia and Viet Nam to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf – China (7 May 2009). 

Send us a text

In the second in our 'BarbieHeimer' series, we turn to the Oppenheimer movie and speak with world-renowned nuclear disarmament advocate and expert, Gareth Evans, about the opportunity the movie missed in re-energising efforts to the nuclear disarmament cause. We speak with him about the need for Australia to return to its former position of influence in arms control, to focus on a policy of 4D's:

- Doctrine of no first use;
- De-alerting early launch status of nuclear weapons;
- reducing Deployments of nuclear weapons; and
- Decreasing the number of nuclear weapons.

Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AC KC FASSA FAIIA is Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, where he was Chancellor from 2010-19. He was a Cabinet Minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor Governments from 1983-96, in the posts of Attorney General, Minister for Resources and Energy, Minister for Transport and Communications and - from 1988-96 - Foreign Minister. During his 21 years in Australian politics he was Leader of the Government in the Senate (1993-96) and Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the House of Representatives (1996-98). From 2000 to 2009 he was President and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, the independent global conflict prevention and resolution organisation. He initiated the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, co-chaired the Australia-Japan International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, was founding convenor of the Asia Pacific Leadership Network on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (APLN), and co-authored Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play (ANU, 2013 and 2015).

Additional resources:

• Gareth Evans, 'Nuclear weapons:“Oppenheimer” won’t make a difference, but Australia can', The Interpreter, 27 Jul 2023.
• Other publications by Gareth Evans, available here (see in particular:  Lowering the Nuclear Temperature: Australia's role; Nuclear Weapons: The State of Play;  Revisiting the case for No First Use of nuclear weapons; & Nuclear Disarmament: the global challenge.
• Australia-Japan ICNND Report Eliminating Nuclear Threats , Report of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, Co-Chair Yoriko Kawaguchi, 2009.
• George P. Shultz, William J. Perry,  Henry A. Kissinger and Sam Nunn, 'A World Free of Nuclear Weapons', The Wall Street Journal, 4 Jan 2007.
• John Hersey, Hiroshima, Snowball Publishing, 1946.
• Ward Wilson Five Myths About Nuclear Weapons, Mariner Books, 2014.
• Ramesh Thakur, 'Four Myths about Nuclear Weapons,'  Pearls and Irritations - John Menadue's Public Policy Journal, 4 June 2023.

Send us a text

In this interview, we are continuing our series on legal review of AWS, and speaking with two of the Law and Future of war research team, about an issue that impacts the design approaches to AWS: the alignment problem. In May 2023, there were reports of an AWS being tested, that turned upon its operator, and eventually cut its communications links so it could go after its originally planned mission... this prompted discussion about the alignment problem with AWS, impacting future TEVV strategies and regulatory approaches to this technology.

The conference referred to in the episode can be found in the notes to the attached link,  with relevant excerpts extracted below: - Highlights from the RAeS Future Combat Air & Space Capabilities Summit (aerosociety.com):

'Could an AI-enabled UCAV turn on its creators to accomplish its mission? (USAF)

[UPDATE 2/6/23 - in communication with AEROSPACE - Col Hamilton admits he "mis-spoke" in his presentation at the Royal Aeronautical Society FCAS Summit and the 'rogue AI drone simulation' was a hypothetical "thought experiment" from outside the military, based on plausible scenarios and likely outcomes rather than an actual USAF real-world simulation saying: "We've never run that experiment, nor would we need to in order to realise that this is a plausible outcome". ] 

Col Tucker ‘Cinco’ Hamilton, the Chief of AI Test and Operations, USAF, ... cautioned against relying too much on AI noting how easy it is to trick and deceive.

... Said Hamilton: “We were training it in simulation to identify and target a SAM threat. And then the operator would say yes, kill that threat. The system started realising that while they did identify the threat at times the human operator would tell it not to kill that threat, but it got its points by killing that threat. So what did it do? It killed the operator. It killed the operator because that person was keeping it from accomplishing its objective.”

Dr Brendan Walker-Munro is a Senior Research Fellow with the University of Queensland's Law and the Future of War research group. Brendan's research focus is on criminal and civil aspects of national security law, and the role played by intelligence agencies, law enforcement and the military in investigating and responding to critical incidents. He is also interested in the national security impacts of law on topics such as privacy, identity crime and digital security.

Dr Sam Hartridge is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Queensland. His research is currently examining the interplay between technical questions of AI safety, AI risk management frameworks and standards, and foundational international and domestic legal doctrine. 

 Additional Resources:

• Autonomy in weapons systems: playing catch up with technology - Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog (icrc.org)
• Striking Blind | The Forge (defence.gov.au)Concrete Problems in AI Safety (arxiv.org)
• The Superintelligent Will: Motivation and Instrumental Rationality in Advanced Artificial Agents (researchgate.net)
• The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities (arxiv