Research Of The Armed Conflict Law Application Under The Asymmetric Warfare

In modern times, about armed conflict whether it broke out between states ornon-states, military asymmetry of the two sides become more obvious and this kindasymmetry grow with time, as a result of the phenomenon, violation of armed conflicthas reached an unprecedented degree, non-compliance with the rules is no longer anincidental phenomenon in the conflict confined to time and space, actually it hasalready become a constantly emerging structural characteristic of contemporaryarmed conflicts since the war begins, at the same time, this disobedience ofrelated laws has developed to one of conventional fighting means for the weakerparty against the strong side. Tracing reasons are as follows: when faced with anopponent with absolute superiority of military technology, because the weaker partycouldn’t find any weakness from its much stronger opponents, he was forced to seekwarfare means prohibited by law of armed conflict to offset their opponent’s strengthsto survive or to save power. This paper mainly reviews the current asymmetricwarfare of universal phenomenon, and consider to what extent the traditional armedconflict law works in such wars, meanwhile, the author also deeply analyzes somechallenges faced by the traditional armed conflict law such as the principle ofdistinction, the principle of proportionality, as well as humanitarian disasters causedby ignoring preventive measures of two parties; Finally, the author tries to give somesuggestions to change the "vicious circle" of asymmetric parties violating lawsand finally make the asymmetric conflict operate in a more fair, orderly andcivilized environment.Specifically, in the first part, the author gives the concept of asymmetric warfare,its origins, development,classification and talks about related issues. The structureof wars has developed from symmetric to asymmetric model not only betweencountries but also between state and non-state actors, in contemporary armed conflicts,this asymmetry is becoming increasingly notable. The developed countries, by virtueof absolute military technology advantage, make the weak opponents face devastating blow at the beginning of war. Thus, for the weaker party in order to survive, andsave their own strength, they are "forced" to take asymmetric strategy frequently,such as urban guerrilla warfare and terrorism. Then, the author lists threecharacteristics of asymmetric warfare, in order to supplement the various inequalityof two sides in the face of asymmetric warfare, which is to pave the way to start laterviolations behaviors.In the second part, the author discusses the application and challenges of armedconflict law under asymmetric warfare, with no doubt, in terms of regulation ofwarfare operation and methods, the traditional armed conflict law still works greatly,especially the Common Article3of Geneva Convention, which stands for theprotection bottom line, and the two Additional Protocols to protect the victims ofinternational or non-international armed conflict, which all have a clear basis forvictims protection. For this reason, I selected two typical contemporary asymmetricwarfare style to prove the applicability of armed conflict law.In the latter part of the second chapter, the author discusses the challenges oftraditional armed conflict law to deal with asymmetric warfare, including the anti-useof principle of distinction, the expanded proportionality principle. As we know, thedistinction principle stands for the core of the armed conflict law, but underasymmetric warfare, the weaker party deliberately blur the distinction betweencivilians and members of the armed forces, which makes the powerful party feelsmore difficult to fight back, and precisely because this increasingly difficult identify,together with the repeatedly violation of regulations of the weaker party, the basis ofreciprocity has disappeared, Finally, the stronger side expands the application of theprinciple of proportion. However, the author propose that as the military superiorityparty, the armed conflict law naturally gives the superiority party more right, in orderto avoid the expansion of the principle of proportionality bringing about illegal"vicious cycle" endlessly, it is necessary to emphasize the notice duty of powerfulparty, for example, preventive measures under precision guided weapons, theobject examination and effective warning before the attack decision.In the last part, the author tries to put forward some suggestions from variousperspectives for improving the current armed conflict law in dealing with unequal rights and obligations of both sides in asymmetric warfare. multiple mechanismsuch as to limit the abuse of war-waging power of big countries,to takenon-military means to resolve conflicts, to build a more equitable internationalpolitical, economic and cultural order (the fruit of justice bring the peace), tostrengthen the humanitarian supervision of the International Committee of the RedCross as well as to strengthen and implement accountability system of the law ofpostwar.we should see that, the unequal rights and obligations of the parties meansthey will never escape the " vicious cycle ", only the rights and obligations of twoparties towards a more equitable direction, will the two sides act moreself-consciously and positively in compliance with the armed conflict law, finally amore civilized and humanitarian asymmetrical war will come.