The Individualization of War: Rights, Liability, and Accountability in Contemporary Armed Conflict

The rights and responsibilities of the individual are at the centre of today's armed conflicts in a way that they have never been before. This process of 'individualization', which challenges the primacy of the sovereign state, is driven by normative developments related to human rights that have elevated human-centric conceptions of security and created a new class of international crimes, as well as by technological and strategic developments that can both empower individuals as military actors and enable either the targeting or protection of particular individuals.

The Individualization of War examines the status of individuals in contemporary armed conflict in three main capacities: as subject to violence but deserving of protection; as liable to harm because of their responsibility for attacks on others; and as agents who can be held accountable for the perpetration of crimes. This book presents a novel conceptualization of the phenomenon of individualization, including how it is both practiced and contested. It then convenes a set of leading thinkers from the fields of moral philosophy, international law, and international relations to further our understanding of not only how individualization is manifest in armed conflict - in theory and in practice - but also how it generates tensions and challenges for today's scholars and practitioners. The collective research on which the book is based integrates the currently segregated scholarship on individualization in different academic disciplines, thereby illuminating the important links between law, morality, and politics that constitute the day-to-day reality for national militaries, international organizations, and humanitarian actors

Jennifer Welsh, Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security, McGill University, Dapo Akande, Professor of Public International Law, University of Oxford, David Rodin, Founder and Chair, Principia Advisory

Editor Jennifer M. Welsh is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University and Director of the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies.

Editor Dapo Akande is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford and a Member of the United Nations International Law Commission.

Editor David Rodin is the Founder and Chair of Principia Advisory and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs.