Preliminary definitions

Hostilities

1. The present book deals with the conduct of hostilities governed by the law of international armed conflict (LOIAC). The threshold of an international armed conflict (IAC) is crossed automatically once two or more States wage hostilities against each other, irrespective of the intensity or the length of the fighting. As the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) pronounced in the Tadić case, ‘an armed conflict exists whenever there is resort to armed force between States’. Depending on their scale, IAC hostilities may make the grade of a fully-fledged war or they may amount to a ‘short of war’ clash of arms (namely, constitute a mere incident), but either way the military engagement between two or more States invites the application of LOIAC.

2. Common Article 2 (first paragraph) of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 for Protection of War Victims pronounces:

The authoritative Commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Common Article 2 is adamant that it does not matter ‘how much slaughter takes place’ in an IAC, emphasizing that – even if there is ‘only a single wounded person as a result of the conflict’ – LOIAC will apply.

3. The locution ‘hostilities’ is a portmanteau term embracing all forms of hostile acts undertaken against the enemy. Hostilities are conducted through the employment of means and methods of warfare. ‘Methods of warfare’ are operational modes reviewed in essence in Chapter 8. They primarily involve attacks (defined infra 8), but also include some ancillary measures (see infra 4). ‘Means of warfare’ consist chiefly of weapons and matériel (such as means of communications and signalling devices). ‘Weapons’ – examined in Chapter 3 – include any arms (for instance, missile launchers, artillery, machine guns and rifles), munitions (for example, missiles, bombs, mines, shells and bullets) and other devices, components or mechanisms striving to (i) kill, disable or injure enemy personnel; or (ii) destroy or damage matériel or property. Weapons encompass also weapon systems (with diverse external guidance means) and platforms carrying weapons.