How The Second World War Informs International Law Today
There has been a lot of discussion in the news lately about the way international law dictates the manner in which states are allowed and constrained in acts of war.
I will not get into the politics at play in contemporary events in this post because I have discussed this at length in a number of posts.
Here, I want to look at international law and what it was that made us reconsider our previous relative apathy to the rule of law when it came to war.
The primary reason we have reconsidered and constrained acts of war is because of the disastrous ramifications of the Second World War — a war that, as many have noted, targeted civilians disproportionately over soldiers.
Let me explain.
The Second World War truly was disastrous. Many writers have documented the atrocities many suffered at the hands of former friends and enemies alike. The War devastated Europe in a way that was inconceivable decades, and centuries, prior.
From the Protestant Wars or the Napoleonic Wars of the late 18th and early 19th centuries to the First World War, there is no conflict that came so close to testing world order the way the Second World War did.
