A sui generis principle of imperial-combatant immunity emerged above the law of armed conflict

Evidence

What had emerged here, very clearly, was the preeminence of a tacit normative principle that was alien to the law of armed conflicts but implicitly regarded as superior to it, namely a sui generis principle of the immunity of imperial combatants. Elshtain went on, “We violated the norm of discrimination in a strange up-ended kind of way by devising a new criterion, it seems: combatant immunity ranked higher as a consideration than did non-combatant immunity for Serbian—or Albanian Kosovar—civilians, with our determination to keep NATO soldiers—in other words, American soldiers—out of harm’s way, we embraced combatant immunity for our own combatants.” — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 435 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: What is new about imperial violence is its quasi-invulnerability being set as a norm; Combatant immunity emerged as a de facto norm alien to just war law; Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity (+6 more)

Related

• Combatant immunity emerged as a de facto norm alien to just war law (similarity 0.94)
• Combattant immunity for one’s own soldiers replaced non-combatant immunity as the top norm. (similarity 0.93)
• Israel formally codified combatant-immunity doctrine first developed in the 1990s (similarity 0.86)
• Israel formalized the doctrine that protecting Israeli soldiers outranks enemy civilians. (similarity 0.83)
• Dominant powers codified their own practical invulnerability as the overriding war norm (similarity 0.83)
• Drone warfare creates a new configuration that is neither war nor peace (similarity 0.80)
• The armed drone resolves a centuries-old tension in political sovereignty. (similarity 0.79)
• Drone warfare creates a new ethical-political norm neither war nor peace (similarity 0.79)
• Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity (similarity 0.79)
• A state can prioritize its own soldiers’ lives over unlimited foreign civilian casualties. (similarity 0.78)
• Right to kill depends on readiness to expose own soldiers (similarity 0.78)
• Soldiers’ lives were redefined as citizens deserving protection above enemy civilians. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Combatant immunity emerged as a de facto norm alien to just war law #expands (0.80)
• Dominant powers codified their own practical invulnerability as the overriding war norm #corroborates (0.80)
• Combattant immunity for one’s own soldiers replaced non-combatant immunity as the top norm. #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 435
• Drone warfare establishes a norm neither war nor peace via imperial immunity #complicates (0.70)
• Right to kill depends on readiness to expose own soldiers #complicates (0.65)
• Israel formally codified combatant-immunity doctrine first developed in the 1990s #qualifies (0.55)