Prisoners of War in Contemporary Conflict

In 2021, the International Committee of the Red Cross released its Commentary on the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs). The new document updated the 1960 "Pictet Commentary." As a result, the attention of the law-of-armed-conflict community was refocused on the designation and treatment of POWs. The Lieber Institute for Law and Warfare at West Point launched a project to further examine the subject. The result is this book. Sadly, world events have made that examination especially timely. Unlike the ICRC's updated Commentary, this book is not meant to be a comprehensive treatment of the international law relating to POWs. Rather, it is a collection of capita selecta identified by the contributors as meriting further examination - either because they are unsettled, inadequately addressed in the literature, or operationally problematic. The work is in three parts. Part I examines qualification for POW status. Discussion then moves in Part II to the treatment to which POWs are entitled. Part III concludes with a consideration of the historical relevance of, and perspectives on, the international law governing POWs. As the drafters of the Third Geneva Convention emphasized over seventy years ago, the aim of the law is "to mitigate as far as possible, the inevitable rigours [of a war] and to alleviate the condition of prisoners of war." It is through that lens that scholars and practitioners should consider the rules governing POWs, and with which they should approach this book.

Major Christopher J. Koschnitzky is a U.S. Army Judge Advocate and Military Professor at the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College. Major Koschnitzky has deployed to Afghanistan and Africa to advise commanders on the law of armed conflict. In previous assignments, Major Koschnitzky has served as a criminal defense attorney, and as the Army and Department of Defense's agency counsel for civil litigation challenges to their personnel policies in federal courts. Michael N. Schmitt is the G. Norman Lieber Distinguished Scholar at the U.S. Military Academy, Professor of International Law at the University of Reading, Strauss Center Distinguished Scholar at the University of Texas, and the Charles H. Stockton Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the U.S. Naval War College. He is a retired U.S. Air Force officer who served as both an intelligence officer and judge advocate. He is the Director of the Tallinn Manual 3.0 Project, Executive Editor of the journal International Law Studies, and General Editor of OUP's Lieber Studies series.