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With the increase in the magnitude of the devastating effects of terrorist attacks encountered by the United States and other Western nations,there has been a change from law enforcement to an armed engagement in the method of handling such threats. This was especially clear immediately after the 9/11 incidents in the United States. Prior to those incidents counter terrorism was viewed as a matter of law enforcement. Since 9/11, however, the US and its allies have resorted to using pure armed measures with a view to quell such threats. The main theme of this book, then, is the question as to whether International Humanitarian Law (IHL) is applicable to the on going (counter-) terrorism. Admittedly, the issue is a divisive one. There is no consensus on the answers at various levels of the question. However, a close and careful analysis of the situation confirms that the situation qualifies as one of an armed conflict. Further analysis reveals that, (counter-) terrorism, because it does not fit into the traditional definition of armed conflict under IHL, it is not subject to the existing body of IHL.

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Kokebe is Lecturer at Law at Bahir Dar University School of Law. He graduated from Addis Ababa University with LLB degree in 2004 and has done his LLM at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. He has written articles on various topics of law.

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