ABSTRACT
Western states had a key influence in the emergence and development of international humanitarian law (IHL) of armed conflicts and they were also the first signatories to the Geneva Conventions and Hague Conventions, both before World War II and after its conclusion. A reasonable assessment of the relation of the West to IHL would require an analysis of the practice within the context of individual obligations of all Western states which took part in wars after 1989, as well as of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as a Western organisation conducting international missions. In the light of IHL, military operations of Western states could be qualified both as conflicts of an international and non-international character. The military advantage in such cases may be questionable and be in contravention of the principle of proportionality. Minutely planned aerial operations against strictly defined military targets resulted in relatively lower civilian losses.
