ABSTRACT
While both moral discourse and international law have paid a great deal of attention to the protection of noncombatants in the way of armed conflict, particular characteristics of armed conflicts as they have developed since World War II have tended to erode both the idea of noncombatant immunity and specific efforts to protect noncombatants. This chapter examines the major contours of the treatment of noncombatant immunity in recent moral discourse and in the law of armed conflicts, then turns to the major challenges to protection of noncombatants posed by the nature of recent armed conflicts. It concludes with some reflections as to how the effort to maintain noncombatant immunity might be strengthened.
The protection of noncombatants from direct, intended harm during armed conflicts is recognized as of major importance in present-day reflection on military ethics. Indeed, it has been a particularly distinctive feature of both the law of armed conflicts and moral discourse on war since World War II and occupies a place of major importance in both. This subject is treated from various perspectives, along with additional issues having to do with right conduct in the use of military force, in other chapters in Part II of this book. The present chapter provides an overview of the historical background and current status of efforts to establish protection for noncombatants in the way of war, then offers a critical look at some particular challenges posed to the protection of noncombatants by irregular forms of warfare, which has emerged as the dominant form of contemporary armed conflict.
