Extraterritorial Use of Force Against Non-State Actors

Abstract This book analyses the primary relevant rules of international law applicable to extraterritorial use of force by states against non-state actors. Force in this context takes many forms, ranging from targeted killings and abductions of individuals to large-scale military operations amounting to armed conflict. Actions of this type have occurred in what has become known as the ‘war on terror’, but are not limited to this context, and the analysis in this book covers a more definable scope: unilateral, extraterritorial, forcible measures against non-state actors. Three frameworks of international law are examined. These are the framework of international law regulating the resort to force in the territory of other states, the law of armed conflict, and international human rights law. The book examines the applicability of these frameworks to extraterritorial forcible measures against non-state actors, and analyses the difficulties and challenges presented by application of the rules to these measures. The issues covered include, among others: the possibility of self-defence against non-state actors, including anticipatory self-defence, the lawfulness of measures that do not conform to the parameters of self-defence, the classification of extraterritorial force against non-state actors as armed conflict, the ‘war on terror’ as an armed conflict, the laws of armed conflict regulating force against groups and individuals, the extraterritorial applicability of international human rights law, and the regulation of forcible measures under human rights law.