ABSTRACT
In current hostilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, parts of Pakistan, and elsewhere, from Colombia to the Horn of Africa, non-state actors—in particular, terrorists and insurgents who behave like terrorists—play a much greater role than they did during World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. In those wars between states, the accepted rules of war, embodied in documents such as the Geneva Conventions, applied much more readily than in contemporary conflicts. Currently, conventional armies that seek to adhere to the rules of war are dis-advantaged when they confront terrorists, which suggests that the rules of war need to be updated.
