ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book shows the historical sources and presents a general commentary on the nature and structure of the text of the definition adopted in 1977. It presents the definition, which comprises two crucial elements that are both supplemented or qualified by other components, resulting in an apparent state of equilibrium. The need to assess targets flows from one of the fundamental principles of the law of armed conflict, namely the principle of distinction. The book focuses on the key element, which requires the destruction, neutralization or capture of the object to offer a definite military advantage in the circumstances ruling at the time. It discusses the four objects: objects associated with political leadership, civilian morale, TV and radio facilities, and objects whose contribution entails the commission of grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and of Additional Protocol I and/or other serious international crimes.
