11 February 2013

Details on US drone attacks in Yemen revealed

A New York Times report reveals that the United States (US) carries out strikes in Yemen from a drone base in Saudi Arabia since 2011. Military strikes are carried out with the consent of the government of Yemen, but the CIA can carry out a drone strike without the permission of the government of Yemen. The CIA has been given the mission of killing leaders of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who the Obama administration have determined to pose a direct threat to the US.

The fact that the Joint Special Operations Command must get Yemen’s government’s approval before launching a drone strike is said to be in place, because the military’s drone campaign is closely tied to counterterrorism operations that are conducted by Yemeni special operations troops.

Source: The New York Times | Drone Strikes’ Risks to Get Rare Moment in the Public Eye

26 January 2013

Responsibility for peace, and responsibility in war: on the military operation in Mali

It has been almost two weeks since France began a military intervention to help the Malian army fight Islamist groups controlling the north of the country. The operation — code-named ‘Serval’ — was sparked by the ‘serious deterioration of the situation’ in Mali, after successful offensives by extremists who managed to take over the city of Konna, ‘a frontier town that had been the de facto line of government control’. The action of France, coming about after months of lengthy negotiations attempting to resolve the crisis in Mali, has been overall welcomed by the international community, and reportedly relatively successful in pushing back Islamists. In terms of international law, the military operation raises a number of issues, two aspects of which this blog post will address: the responsibility for maintaining peace, and the responsibility during the conduct of war. (more…)