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Papers by Adam Roberts

British Yearbook of International Law, 1985

Pictet, Commentary on Geneva Convention IV (1958), p. 21. 12 Draper, op. cit. above (p. 250 n. 3)... more Pictet, Commentary on Geneva Convention IV (1958), p. 21. 12 Draper, op. cit. above (p. 250 n. 3), at p. 25. 13 Para. 2 'does not refer to cases in which territory is occupied during hostilities; in such cases the Convention will have been in force since the outbreak of hostilities or since the time war was declared. The paragraph only refers to cases where the occupation has taken place without a declaration of war and without hostilities, and makes provision for the entry into force of the Convention in those particular circumstances': Pictet, op. cit. above (n, II), at p. 21.

Survival, 2007

It has taken over five years of the disastrously mismanaged 'war on terror' for the United States... more It has taken over five years of the disastrously mismanaged 'war on terror' for the United States to begin to accept certain conclusions about the status and treatment of detainees that should have been clear from the start. A critical turning-point was the decision of the US Supreme Court in June 2006 in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which at last recognised that some provisions of the Geneva Conventions-in particular those in their common Article 3-applied to detainees in the 'war on terror'. No longer was this a matter of the US government stating that it would implement certain provisions on an optional basis: the Supreme Court made it clear that this was a matter of legal obligation. In particular, there was a clear prohibition on cruel treatment and torture, and a requirement that, if detainees are put on trial, it could not be by the military commissions planned by President George W. Bush, but must be in a better constituted court offering recognised judicial guarantees. The US change of policy following this decision in 2006 is significant but still incomplete. On 7 July 2006 the Pentagon ordered all US armed forces to treat all detainees in accord with common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions

Review of International Studies, 1987

In the forty years since the Second World War there have been many situations which have been wid... more In the forty years since the Second World War there have been many situations which have been widely viewed as military occupations—that is, where the armed forces of a country are in control of inhabited territory beyond the recognized boundaries of their own state. Hungary in 1956, the Israeli-occupied territories since 1967, Namibia since 1968, northern Cyprus since 1974, Western Sahara since 1975 and Kampuchea since 1978 have been among the territories which have been designated as ‘occupied’ in UN General Assembly resolutions.

The Adelphi Papers, 2007

In contrast to the common perception that the United Nations is, or should become, a system of co... more In contrast to the common perception that the United Nations is, or should become, a system of collective security, this paper advances the proposition that the UN Security Council embodies a necessarily selective approach. Analysis of its record since 1945 suggests ...

International Review of the Red Cross, 2009

The 'equal application' principle is that in international armed conflicts, the laws of war apply... more The 'equal application' principle is that in international armed conflicts, the laws of war apply equally to all who are entitled to participate directly in hostilities, irrespective of the justice of their causes. The principle, which depends on maintaining separation between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, faces serious challenges in contemporary armed conflicts and discourses. Some variations of the principle may be inevitable. However, it has a firm basis in treaties and in historical experience. It is the strongest practical basis that exists, or is likely to exist, for maintaining certain elements of moderation in war. The rival proposition-that the rights and obligations of combatants under the laws of war should apply in a fundamentally unequal manner, depending on which side is deemed to be the more justified-is unsound in conception, impossible to implement effectively and dangerous in its effects. Volume 90 Number 872 December 2008 * This article is a product of research under the auspices of the Oxford Leverhulme Research Programme on ' The Changing Character of War '. For comments on successive drafts I am grateful to participants in its workshop on Symmetry, Oxford, 23

The Adelphi Papers, 1989

In the early 1980s, when some existing arms-control agreements were subjects of friction, when pr... more In the early 1980s, when some existing arms-control agreements were subjects of friction, when proposals for new accords were in trouble, and when the benefits of arms control were being questioned, many resisted the fashion and instead stuck obstinately to their arms-control guns. In particular, several writers (including some associated with the IISS) asserted that the factors which had led governments to take arms control seriously in the past were still very much in evidence, and that the approach to arms control which had emerged in Western Europe and the US around the time of the formation of this Institute would stage a come-back.1 It has indeed done so, one might even say with a vengeance. Now, in the late 1980s, should a prudent analysis be that the pendulum will swing again, and that arms control will face serious difficulties in the next few years?

Yearbook of International Humanitarian Law, 2000

Humanitarian intervention, a long-standing issue in international legal writing and in state prac... more Humanitarian intervention, a long-standing issue in international legal writing and in state practice, has become a major focus of international legal thinking and military action. Since the early 1990s, there have been new and unexpected elements in the practice of intervention, in its authorization, and in debates about it. Action by outside military forces in several territories — northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti and Kosovo — has provoked questions about whether there is a right of humanitarian intervention. In addition, the debate on the subject has been spurred by the strong sense that there were crises (most notably, the genocide in Rwanda in 1994) in which the international community should have intervened promptly but failed to do so.

Survival, 2009

The war in 1979-89 between the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan and its mujahadeen adversa... more The war in 1979-89 between the Soviet-backed government of Afghanistan and its mujahadeen adversaries contributed to the collapse of the Soviet empire - not only proof of the fateful consequences that may flow from war in Afghanistan, but also one driver of the present war. The ...

The Adelphi Papers, 1983

... ADAM ROBERTS ... Alexander Pope's lines might be-come horribly applicable: ... Thus ... more ... ADAM ROBERTS ... Alexander Pope's lines might be-come horribly applicable: ... Thus in his 1981Reith Lectures Laurence Martin said that 'the Polish crisis is dangerous for NATO as well as the Warsaw Pact'.6 No statesman in the West reacted to the imposi-tion of martial law in ...

Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Mar 20, 2013

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been widely studied both theoretically and experimen... more Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been widely studied both theoretically and experimentally for chemical and biological sensing, primarily in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Although in the ultraviolet (UV) plasmonic behavior is limited by metallic dampening, we have theoretically shown that SERS enhancement factors as large as 10$^ 5$ can be achieved when the laser is tuned to the plasmonic band edge of an Al metallic grating grown on a sapphire substrate. Using electron beam lithography, aluminum ...