Civil War?

[chickenfeet]

What are/should be the criteria for deciding whether or not Iraq is "in a state of civil war"? As I understand it, this is a non-trivial question as combatants in a civil war would be entitled to the protections afforded by the Geneva conventions and, by implication, denying them would be a war crime.

This is not a rhetorical question. I have no idea, legally, at what point "acts of terror" become "an insurrection" become "a civil war".

Comments

[forthright.livejournal.com]

I'm no international lawyer, but it seems to me that these things are always left intentionally vague, which can only be to the advantage of powerful states. Makes it much easier to keep outfits like Guantanamo running. The better question is not what the definition of civil war is, but who is doing the defining.

[rparvaaz.livejournal.com]

I don't know either but reckon it has to be linked to the number of people involved in/indulging in the violence. Terrorism < insurgency < civil war...

[rparvaaz.livejournal.com]

Professor Cole points to a definition by David Singer:

J. David Singer and his collaborators at the University of Michigan (where I also teach) have studied dozens of such conflicts and have offered a thorough and widely adopted definition of civil war. It is:


"Sustained military combat, primarily internal, resulting in at least 1,000 battle-deaths per year, pitting central government forces against an insurgent force capable of effective resistance, determined by the latter's ability to inflict upon the government forces at least 5 percent of the fatalities that the insurgents sustain." (Errol A. Henderson and J. David Singer, "Civil War in the Post-Colonial World, 1946-92," Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 37, No. 3, May 2000.) '