• How the law of war ought to be written, not how it is.

    The manual those at the tip of the spear have long needed.

Conduct in War is a rewrite of the law of war from a combat veteran’s perspective. The manual provides better guidance than previously available as to how those at the tip of the spear can simultaneously be effective fighters, protective of their own forces, and compassionate humanitarians.

Its underlying tenets include:

  • Situations in war will arise where violating the law may better achieve the purposes for which it was established—to reduce unnecessary death, injury, suffering, and destruction.
  • Combatants should be trained and have agency to make such determinations.
  • If done responsibly after applying law of war principles, those who do so should not be charged for war crimes.

The author served with the Counterinsurgency Department of the U.S. Special Warfare School; the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam in 1968 (platoon leader, XO, and company commander); and the 3rd, 6th, and 20th Special Forces Groups (civil affairs company, A and B teams). He was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star for Valor, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star, and Purple Heart.    CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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Men who take up arms against one another in public war do not cease in this account to be moral beings, responsible for one another and to God.

Francis Lieber
Article 15, General Order 100
(issued by Abraham Lincoln)

WARNING

​This Manual is unofficial, unauthorized, and not in full compliance with the international law of war; international human rights law; U.S. military manuals, handbooks, directives, and training materials; domestic law; and executive orders.

​If, as a combatant, you follow this Manual, doing so may, in some situations, increase the likelihood you will be charged with violations of the law of war. If convicted, you may be fined, reduced in rank, less-than-honorably discharged, imprisoned, or executed. Charges could be brought by the United States, one of its allies, a neutral nation, international courts, or those with whom we are at war. ​

​Nonetheless, if you as an ethical warrior are to do what is reasonable, responsible, and moral regardless of the law or official doctrine, you must at times be willing to expose yourself to extraordinary risks, not only on the battlefield but in a courtroom.

We should perhaps not so much complain that the law of war does not work well, as a marvel that it works at all.

Geoffrey Best
Humanity in War

Each man calls barbarism whatever is not his own practice.

Michel de Montaigne
French Renaissance Philosopher

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