ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses what conditions, and to what extent, international humanitarian law is applicable in a given type of conflict. It begins by assessing the nature of war—or more precisely armed conflicts—and the character of such conflicts. In a legal context this requires an understanding of international armed conflicts between states; and conflicts not of an international character between states and non-state organized armed groups or between several non-state organized armed groups. With the existence of an armed conflict being a condition precedent to the operation of international humanitarian law, this part addresses when such international and non-international armed conflicts begin, when they end, and the interaction between international humanitarian law and the exercise of state self-defense. The analysis then transitions to the impact of the two 1977 Protocols Additional to the 1949 Geneva Conventions. It concludes by discussing a few significant challenges to the traditional international humanitarian law application equation. This includes topics like external state intervention in an ongoing international armed conflict, situations where the line between internal violence and armed conflict is not clear, and armed conflicts between states and non-state organized armed groups operating transnationally.
