Lessons Learned After Twenty Years of Hostilities: the Use of Force and the Law of Armed Conflict

Lessons Learned After Twenty Years of Hostilities:

The Use of Force and the Law of Armed Conf‌lict

Kenneth Watkin*

INTRODUCTION: PRE-9/11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

I. TWO DECADES OF CONFLICT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

A. The Enemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

B. The State Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

C. The Use of Force and 9/11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

D. Targeting People and Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

E. Detention Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

F. The Humanitarian Law and Human Rights Law Interface . . . . 96

II. LESSONS LEARNED AND THE FUTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

A. Lesson 1: There Will Be a Continuing Need to Address the

Global Threat Posed by Non-State Actors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

B. Lesson 2: To Ensure a Coherent Application of International

Law, Greater Attention Must Be Paid to the Interface Between

the Three Legal Frameworks Governing the Use of Force . . . 98

C. Lesson 3: Human Rights Law Will Have a Continuing Impact

on Military Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

D. Lesson 4: Detention Operations Will Remain a Strategic

Center of Gravity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

E. Lesson 5: Technological Change Can Skew Legal Analysis . . 100

CONCLUSION. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

“It is a joke in Britain to say that the War Off‌ice is always preparing for the

last war. But this is probably true of other departments and of other countries,

and it was certainly true of the French Army.”

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INTRODUCTION: PRE-9/11

Whatever truth there is to the old adage that generals always prepare for the last

war, there is much to learn from the use of force and law of armed conf‌lict/humani-

tarian law issues that have arisen since the 9/11 attacks. This is all the more important

given the desire by many countries to reorient their focus away from the

* Brigadier-General (Ret’d) Kenneth Watkin, QC served 28 years as a Canadian Forces legal off‌icer,

including four years as the Judge Advocate General for the Canadian Forces (2006-2010). Watkin taught

at the United States Naval War College (2011-2012) as the Charles H. Stockton Professor of

International Law and has worked as a counterterrorism/counterinsurgency consultant for the United

Nations and the Government of Canada. © 2021, Kenneth Watkin.

1. WINSTON CHURCHILL, 1 THE SECOND WORLD WAR: THE GATHERING STORM 475 (1948).

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