Coalition Warfare: Challenges and Opportunities

• Author: Dale G. Stephens
• Position: Commander, Royal Australian Navy
• Pages: 245-256

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Coalition Warfare:

Challenges and Opportunities

Dale G. Stephens-k

Whenplanning for coalition warfare, the military lawyer is concerned with

achieving effective interoperability under applicable international and

domestic law. In the modern context of "coalitions of the willing," this essentially

means achieving aharmonization of rules of engagement (ROE) with the lead na-

tion, having regard to the specific taskings and missions the coalition partners have

assumed. Usually (but not always) the lead nation in conducting serious global op-

erations in the contemporary environment is the United States. As is well known,

the United States has asserted formally that it is not prepared to sign and ratify a

number oftreaties applicable in the context ofarmed conflict 1and has been consis-

tently critical of the "progressive" nature of anumber of assertive statements of

customary law heralded by some.2Therein lays the obvious, but "ostensible" chal-

lenge, for coalition military partners in trying to ensure operational effectiveness

when operating under potentially divergent legal regimes. The word "ostensible" is

emphasized, because at the working officer level of coalition warfare, there is much

*Commander, Royal Australian Navy. The views expressed in this article are those ofthe author

alone and do not necessarily represent the views of the Australian Government, the Australian

Defence Force, or the Royal Australian Navy. This article was first published in volume 36 of the

Israel Yearbook on Human Rights (2006) and is reprinted with permission. ©2006 by Dale G.

Stephens.