Could America fight its enemies without breaking the law?
The speed and intensity of prospective conflicts could test the laws of war
![A woman looks around as she salvages items at the damaged UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Gaza City](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240720_IRP001.jpg)
GLOOM WILL accompany the 75th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions next month. Debates rage as to whether this batch of treaties, which govern how wars may be fought, and later protocols, which ban genocide, torture and more, remain fit for purpose. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned of “increasing elasticity” in how countries apply the laws of war, which the conventions underpin.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “No more the laws of war?”
More from International
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240907_IRD001.jpg)
How encrypted messaging apps conquered the world
And why governments want to wrest back control
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240831_IRP001.jpg)
The poisonous global politics of water
Polarisation makes it harder to adapt to climate change
![](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/content-assets/images/20240824_IRP001.jpg)
Indian tourists are conquering the world
A booming middle class, budget flights and Bollywood
Can Donald Trump’s Iron Dome plan keep America safe?
In a dangerous world, cutting-edge missile defence is all the rage
Why the war on childhood obesity is failing
Sugar taxes and obesity drugs will not be enough
Paris could change how cities host the Olympics for good
The games will test the success of new solutions to old bugbears