Emerging combatants, war crimes and the future of international humanitarian law

The purpose of this paper is to examine the traditional paradigm of interna tional law that regulates warfare and defines criminal behavior, and examin e how the emergence of new actors has changed the environment of armed conf lict. The existing paradigm takes into account state actors and insurgents who have recognizable political goals. All such combatants have some stake in the existing international political system and some means are available (military intervention, war crimes trials) to compel their compliance with the law. However, new categories of combatants are emerging. They are not connected to states, may have no political goals and are difficult to reach or persuade with time-tested methods. Compelling or persuading them to bet ter compliance with the law is essential to protect vulnerable populations from their depredations. The paper concludes by identifying some contributi ons that criminologists can make toward understanding these groups and devi sing strategies to meet the challenge of war crimes. Those contributions by criminologists would be equally valuable in dealing with the problem of wa r crimes and "traditional'' combatants.