Pre-emptive targeted killings as legitimate use of force in Transnational Asymmetric Warfare

The book seeks to evaluate the place of the conventional rules of engagement during conflicts that were codified in the Geneva Conventions, in the face of unconventional warfare waged between states and/ or state actors against non-state actors across borders. Transnational asymmetric warfare continues to be waged on unprecedented scales. Armed organizations fueled by diverse ideologies continue to terrorize people the world over. In what is now an escalating situation, radical religious extremists plan and execute terror attacks against secular states which in response seek to achieve asymmetry in combating these organizations. In the ensuing quagmire, a definite international legal regime is yet to be established. As such, powerful states implement their domestically constructed policies to handle these conflicts in utter disregard of traditional regulations which in themselves are ineffective in the face of emerging threats. A favorite policy among states most affected with terror threats is pre-emptive targeted killings.