Samenvatting

The authors take a legal perspective at the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli conflict, but also illustrate the difficulty states armed forces have when facing non-state adversaries. International law (ius ad bellum) and the laws of war (ius in bello) both seem to originate most of all from the history of western, interstate war, just like western armed forces are. Applying international law to conflicts with less defined entities like Hezbollah, does stretch the system and demands reinterpretation of what has become widely accepted, even deeply internalised in western security thinking during the 20th century. Nevertheless, as the authors conclude, every country has an inherent right to defend itself against an armed attack, even if that attack is launched by a non-state actor. Defending itself, the state should abide by the law of armed conflict.