We help global leaders navigate legal complexities in the evolving security landscape and make them more effective at mastering legal constraints and opportunities.
Security affairs are increasingly intertwined with legal complexities. Moreover, dynamics in global politics and technological developments often require rethinking traditional legal solutions. Experts, practitioners and stakeholders thus experience a growing need for guidance at the intersection of security policy and international law. The Security and Law Programme at the GCSP aims to address this need in a comprehensive manner. It adopts a policy-oriented approach that relates legal considerations to practical realities. Our core mission is to:
- identify emerging issues in the security realm;
- clarify their legal framework for strategic and operational decision-making;
- bridge the gap between research and practice;
- foster solutions-oriented policy analysis.
Mindful of such challenge, our executive courses try to answer a twofold demand: on the one side, building capacity to effectively implement international commitments while facing security threats; on the other, providing tools to successfully shape new international law governing security affairs.
The Symposium for Senior NATO/PfP Legal Advisors (SSL) unites on an annual basis the Chief Legal Advisers of the NATO system as well as of the Ministries of Defence and Armed Forces of NATO member states and states of the Partnership for Peace to discuss current legal challenges facing NATO and partners. It is designed to provide a collegial venue for an impartial and frank exchange at strategic level and in a confidential setting.
Security and Law: A Reality Check is the event series to address how international law matters in security affairs. It aims to critically assess if current norms fit contemporary and future security challenges, how international commitments can effectively be implemented, and how new international law can successfully be shaped. Reality Checks feature a new GCSP format: The audience attending the event is encouraged to steer the discussion by challenging the speakers and experts.
Past events
- Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire
- International Disarmament Treaties: Trends and Lessons Learned,
- War Algorithms: Who Will Decide in Future Conflicts? A Reality Check with Professor Ashley S. Deeks
- Bye-Bye, International Order? A Reality Check with John B. Bellinger III
- Do the Geneva Conventions Matter? A Reality Check on the 70th Anniversary of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
- Dear Geneva: Let's Talk Hybrid Warfare. A Reality Check;on Hybrid Threats
- Responsibility to Protect Revisited. A Reality Check with Professor Gareth Evans
- Arms Transfer to Conflict-prone Regions. An International Humanitarian Law Talk
- Russia and Europe: International Law as Bone of Contention or Common Denominator? A Reality Check in Geneva and Brussels
- Does Law Contribute to Peace Operations' Success? A Reality Check with the New Leuven Manual
- The Trump Administration and International Law: A Counter-Strategy. A Reality Check with Professor Harold H. Koh
- Special Panel on Libya. An International Humanitarian Law Talk
- Expert Seminar on Enforced Disappearances. An Inclusive Policy Dialogue
- Writing on the Wall: Redefining Security and Law. Global Fellowship Initiative and Alumni Workshop
- The Worth of the Arms Trade Treaty? Let’s debate! Presidential-style Debate on the Arms Trade Treaty
