ABSTRACT
The record of the Diplomatic Conference sheds light on how terrorism, law, and politics tie together. It calls attention to the gulf that divides Western liberal political culture from that of totalitarian and most Third World powers with respect to conceptions of law and of human rights. Notwithstanding its humanitarian subject matter and the legal nature of its mission, the Diplomatic Conference from its inception operated as most United Nations forums then did as a theater for harshly expounded, highly ideological politics. The Diplomatic Conference's work on updating the 1949 Conventions was based on two draft protocols, the first covering "international" and the second "non- international" armed conflicts. The various arguments had presented no convincing case for considering an internal struggle as an international one. It basic principle of the Geneva Conventions, The Hague Regulations and other instruments that legal and humanitarian protection should never vary according to the motives of those engaged in a particular armed struggle.
