Legal Issues in Coalition Warfare: A US Perspective

• Author: Charles Dunlap
• Position: Brigadier General, US Air Force
• Pages: 221-231

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Legal Issues in Coalition Warfare:

AUS Perspective

Charles Dunlap*

Withincreasing frequency, agrowing number of nations find themselves

engaged in operations with US forces. Ihope to give you some perspec-

tive on how the United States views the legal obligations and challenges of opera-

tions within coalitions.

Anation's participation as amember of acoalition is more than just asynchro-

nization of military plans and objectives; it is also asynchronization of legal issues.

Interpreting and applying the law are rarely easy tasks with coalitions comprised of

nations with widely differing political, cultural, and historical influences on their

legal systems. The precise legal context is becoming increasingly technical, yet vi-

tally important—and hardly intuitive. Indeed, legal issues and the differing ap-

proaches amongst coalition partners make the legal aspects of conflict astrategic

issue that must be addressed. As General James L. Jones observes:

It used to be asimple thing to fight abattle. ... In aperfect world, ageneral would get

up and say, "Follow me, men," and everybody would say, "Aye, sir" and run off. But

that's not the world anymore. . . .[Now] you have to have alawyer or adozen. It's

become very legalistic and very complex. 1

*Brigadier General, US Air Force. The views and opinions expressed by the author are his alone

and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Government or any of its components.