International military interventions can be extremely costly in terms of monetary resources, logistical challenges, and possible soldier and civilian casualties, as well as the potential for catastrophic results to international relations and agreements. In one such example of these enormous potential costs, the US and UK wished to stop a Russian ship from delivering ammunition to the Assad regime in Syria in 2012. Intercepting or confronting a Russian ship in transit could have erupted into open conflict, so they sought an alternative, non-confrontational maneuver: instead of military intervention, the UK persuaded the ship's insurer, London's Standard Club, to withdraw the ship's insurance. This loss of insurance caused the ship to return to Russia, thus avoiding an international clash as well as the delivery of deadly weapons to Syria. This use of legal maneuvering in lieu of armed force is known as "lawfare" and is becoming a critical strategic platform. In Lawfare, author Orde Kittrie's draws on his experiences as a lawfare practitioner, US State Department attorney, and international law scholar in analyzing the theory and practice of the strategic leveraging of law as an increasingly powerful and effective weapon in the current global security landscape. Lawfare incorporates case studies of recent offensive and defensive lawfare by the United States, Iran, China, and by both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and includes dozens of examples of how lawfare has thus been waged and defended against. Kittrie notes that since private attorneys can play important and decisive roles in their nations' national security plans through their expertise in areas like financial law, maritime insurance law, cyber law, and telecommunications law, the full scope of lawfare's impact and possibilities are just starting to be understood. With international security becoming an ever complicated minefield of concerns and complications, understanding this alternative to armed force has never been more important.

About the Author
Orde F. Kittrie is Professor of Law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law and a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. A renowned expert on lawfare, nonproliferation, and national security law, he served as an attorney in the U.S. Department of State for over a decade in several key positions, including as Director of the Office of International Anti-Crime Programs and as lead attorney for Nuclear Affairs. He continues to consult for the U.S. Department of Defense on lawfare issues and the intersection of law and policy.

Reviews
Lawfare deserves a prominent place on bookshelves at the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as ministries of defense and foreign affairs across the globe. I suspect that it is already being read with great interest in places like Tehran and Beijing, which is all the more reason that American lawmakers and policymakers should absorb and apply its lessons as swiftly as possible. * David Adesnik, The Weekly Standard *
Lawfare opens up a new area of inquiry through its systematic, detailed, and in some ways visionary synthesis of these different uses of law in relation to national security and armed conflict. This encyclopedic work should be required reading for any military strategist or scholar of armed conflict who is attempting to keep pace with the rapidly evolving world of national security practice. * Claire Finkelstein, Ethics & International Affairs *



Book Information
ISBN 9780190263577
Author Orde F. Kittrie
Format Paperback
Page Count 504
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 846g
Dimensions(mm) 241mm * 163mm * 29mm