In this talk, Boyd Van Dijk will trace the rise and fall of proportionality in U.S. government and military legal thinking. During the Vietnam War, U.S. officials initially resisted international restraints on air power, only to embrace proportionality later in the conflict as part of a “conservative revolution” in the laws of war.
This shift did not primarily aim to protect civilians but to preserve U.S. military effectiveness and legitimacy in the face of mounting global criticism. Proportionality subsequently emerged as the hegemonic principle for regulating civilian harm in targeting operations, reshaping international humanitarian law (IHL) for decades.
Today, however, this framework faces renewed contestation, not least under the Trump administration’s — and in particular the Secretary of Defense’s — direct attacks on IHL.
By emphasizing how remarkably recent proportionality’s emergence was, and how fragile it now appears, this lecture offers critical reflections on the uses, and limits, of law in constraining American war-making.
About the speaker
Boyd van Dijk is an Oxford Martin Fellow at the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow at the Faculty of History and in Nuffield College at Oxford.
He taught previously at the London School of Economics, King's College London, Queen Mary, and the University of Amsterdam. He studied Political Science and History in Amsterdam, Istanbul, Florence, and at Columbia University. He was shortlisted for the IISG-Volkskrant Thesis Award and received the Erik Hazelhoff Young Talent Award. He has published a monograph, articles, and essays for Humanity, the American Journal of International Law, Law and History Review, Yad Vashem Studies, Past & Present, as well as Dutch magazines and newspapers. His new book, entitled 'Preparing for War,' came out in 2022 with Oxford University Press. It has received the 2023 Certificate of Merit in a Specialized Area of International Law from the American Society of International Law.
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