In War Before Civilization, Lawrence H. Keeley, a professor at the University of Illinois, says that about 90 to 95 percent of known societies have fought wars at least occasionally throughout history,[14] and many have fought constantly. [15] Positive international humanitarian law consists of treaties (international agreements) that directly affect the laws of war by binding consenting nations and obtaining broad consent. Failure to comply with these rules may constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law and the Statute of the International Criminal Court. ▸ International Criminal Court ▸ War crimes/crimes against humanity An international armed conflict is an armed conflict between two or more states. The Italian psychoanalyst Franco Fornari, a disciple of Melanie Klein, saw war as the paranoid or projective «elaboration» of grief. [84] Fornari believed that war and violence developed from our «need for love»: our desire to preserve and defend the sacred object to which we are attached, namely our primitive mother and our fusion with her. For adults, nations are the sacred objects that create war. Fornari focused on sacrifice as the essence of war: the incredible willingness of people to die for their country, to hand over their bodies to their nation. Article 53 The use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of warfare is prohibited. [IAC/NIAC] The use of contract fighters in war was a particularly delicate situation for martial law. Some researchers argue that private security companies are so similar to state forces that it is unclear whether acts of war are committed by private or public agents.

[26] International law has not yet reached consensus on this issue. International humanitarian law does not govern the question of whether and under what circumstances an entity has a State. Similarly, it is irrelevant whether the other parties to the conflict recognize the statehood of the entity in question. T. Ferraro and L. Cameron, «Article 2: Application of the Convention», ICRC, Commentary on the First Geneva Convention, 2016, § 231; J. Kleffner, «Scope of Application of International Humanitarian Law», in D. Fleck (ed.), The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2013, p. 47. Instead, the question of whether a warring party has a State is determined by international law. According to the 1933 Montevideo Convention, states are characterized by a permanent population, a defined territory, a government and the ability to establish relations with other states.

It is debated whether recognition of statehood by other States is an additional criterion or not. For an in-depth discussion of all criteria for statehood, see M. Craven, «Statehood, Self-Determination and Recognition», in M.D. Evans (ed.), International Law, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 203. The ICRC seems to follow the so-called declaratory approach: recognition of other states is not necessary for an entity to be a state governed by international law; see T. Ferraro and L. Cameron, «Article 2: Application of the Convention», ICRC, commentary on the First Geneva Convention, 2016, § 231. Recognition may in any event constitute evidence if there are doubts as to the Statehood of an entity; see J. Kleffner, «Scope of International Humanitarian Law», in D. Fleck (ed.), The Handbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2013, p. 48.

Section 17. Each Party to the conflict shall, in selecting means and methods of warfare, take all feasible precautions to avoid and in any case minimize accidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects. [IAC/NIAC] Crofoot and Wrangham argued that war, when defined as group interactions in which «coalitions seek to aggressively dominate or kill members of other groups,» is a characteristic of most human societies. Those that have been lacking «tend to be societies that have been politically dominated by their neighbors.» [93] Just war theory was fundamental to the creation of the United Nations and to the provisions of international law on legitimate wars. [129] An international armed conflict occurs when one or more states use armed force against another state, regardless of the cause or intensity of that confrontation. A formal declaration of war or acknowledgement of the situation is not required. The existence of an international armed conflict and, therefore, the applicability of international humanitarian law to that situation depends on what actually happens on the ground. It is based on factual conditions. In addition to regular armed conflicts between States, Additional Protocol I broadens the definition of international armed conflicts to include armed conflicts in which peoples struggle against colonial domination, foreign occupation or racist regimes (wars of national liberation) in the exercise of their right to self-determination.

See also application; Armed conflict; Internationalized armed conflicts; Non-international armed conflict; War can be seen as the growth of economic competition in a competitive international system. From this perspective, wars begin as a quest for markets for natural resources and wealth. War has also been linked to economic development by economic historians and development economists who have studied state-building and fiscal capacity. [97] Although this theory has been applied to many conflicts, counter-arguments such as the increasing mobility of capital and information, the distribution of wealth around the world, or the fact that it is relative, not absolute, differences in wealth that can fuel wars, are losing their validity.