Engagement Activities

We collaborate with student researchers, scholars, and practitioners to engage with states, intergovernmental organizations, U.N.-system actors, and NGOs through an array of activities aimed at advancing knowledge of international law concerning peace and armed conflict.

Research Briefings at United Nations Missions

Through briefings provided by Professor Modirzadeh to legal advisors to Missions to the United Nations in New York, we lead a series of informal working lunches on themes and topics concerning international law, armed conflict, and protection of civilians based primarily on our ongoing research. The series began in 2016. As of 2022, we conduct the series in collaboration with the Missions of Belgium, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Norway, Sierra Leone, Switzerland, and Vanuatu.

Workshops

We regularly convene workshops to identify, explore, and understand contemporary challenges concerning armed conflict and international law. Beginning in 2016, for example, we have co-sponsored a series of workshops — on detention, outer space, artificial intelligence, partnered warfare, and urban sieges — with the International Committee of the Red Cross Regional Delegation for the United States and Canada and military academic institutions.

CASE-STUDy Simulation ExercisES

In collaboration with the HLS Case Studies Program, we develop real-world-based case studies. In each exercise, students act as senior-level decision-makers to resolve legal and policy dilemmas that arise in armed conflicts. Our two sets of simulation exercises concern protection of civilians in partnered warfare and humanitarian aid in Somalia.

LACMO Research Network

We are a founding member of the LACMO international research network. Initiated by the Amsterdam Center for International Law, the network is a consortium of research centers and research groups within universities and military staff colleges and academies in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Pacific, which are engaged in academic research in the areas of the law of armed conflict, military operational law, and military dimensions of cyber security and related disciplines.

WORKING GROUP

We host and convene the Counterterrorism and Humanitarian Engagement Project’s Senior Law and Policy Working Group, which comprises over 150 senior humanitarian, counterterrorism, and human rights practitioners, policy advisers, directors, and general counsel. Our researchers regularly provide the Working Group with information and knowledge resources on enduring and emerging issues concerning respect for humanitarian action in relation to counterterrorism contexts.

Activities write-up last updated: October 2023.