Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. I bet, like most anniversaries, the day will perhaps go unnoticed by a good majority. A few mentions in the media and an event or two and that will be it. These Conventions, first formalised in 1864, are the bedrock of the laws of armed conflict and I believe the single greatest humanitarian achievement of the 19th century.

The Economist had an good piece marking the anniversary, titled ‘Unleashing the laws of war‘, it highlights the gap between its ideals and reality. When I was touring around Australia, talking about the importance of the Geneva Conventions, I often said that “the soldiers dilemma is this; if they fight as gentlemen, they risk defeat, but if they fight as barbarians, then their victories will be empty ones.” I dragged out my thesis, The Chameleon of War: International Humanitarian Law and the Changing Nature of Warfare, and re-read few pages. Here is the abstract:

“War is more than a true chameleon that slightly adapts its characteristics to the given case” - Carl von Clausewitz

This thesis examines the capacity of international humanitarian law to evolve with the changing nature of warfare, and its efficacy and limitations in dealing with the emergence of non-state actors in internal armed conflicts. The capacity to evolve is constrained by two factors. The first is the haphazard evolution of international humanitarian law, which does not develop in a rational and gradual way. The second is that states, which control the international legislative processes, are not desirous of eliminating the overlaps, closing the gaps and removing the ambiguities within international humanitarian law.

My contention is that international humanitarian law, whose bedrock is the Geneva Conventions, can be adapted to meet the challenge of new forms of conflicts and actors. Whilst some scholars advocate the need to consider new treaties, I argue that the solution does not lie in the codification of new conventions but in the effective implementation of existing norms. I outline three proposals: educating the civilian population on the Geneva Conventions, supporting the International Criminal Court and the need for progressive judicial interpretation of existing laws. - The Chameleon of War, The University of New South Wales, October 2005.