Brigadier General (Retired) Kenneth Watkin was a career military legal adviser to the Canadian Forces, who has served in a number of operational, military justice, and general legal advisory positions, most recently as Judge Advocate General for the Canadian Forces. He is widely respected as a scholar of IHL and national security law, with dozens of articles in the field. He won the 2008 Lieber Society Military Prize for his AJIL article, Assessing Proportionality: Moral Complexity and Legal Rules, and served as the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College from 2011-2012.

Watkin's book can be seen both as a work of operational law and a major scholarly treatment of the law governing the use of force. It provides detailed accounts of how situations arise on the ground that evade easy classification in terms of our existing conceptual and legal categories. These will provide vivid instruction for those not familiar with the reality of modern military operations. At the same time, it furnishes a valuable framework for analyzing the features of such operations that are relevant in assessing how force should be used in particular scenarios. Finally, Watkin offers a set of principles for both operational law and broader policy decisions to help navigate the complex terrain of modern security challenges.

Brigadier General (Retired) Kenneth Watkin was a career military legal adviser to the Canadian Forces, who has served in a number of operational, military justice, and general legal advisory positions, most recently as Judge Advocate General for the Canadian Forces. He is widely respected as a scholar of IHL and national security law, with dozens of articles in the field. He won the 2008 Lieber Society Military Prize for his AJIL article, Assessing Proportionality: Moral Complexity and Legal Rules, and served as the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College from 2011-2012.

Watkin's book can be seen both as a work of operational law and a major scholarly treatment of the law governing the use of force. It provides detailed accounts of how situations arise on the ground that evade easy classification in terms of our existing conceptual and legal categories. These will provide vivid instruction for those not familiar with the reality of modern military operations. At the same time, it furnishes a valuable framework for analyzing the features of such operations that are relevant in assessing how force should be used in particular scenarios. Finally, Watkin offers a set of principles for both operational law and broader policy decisions to help navigate the complex terrain of modern security challenges.

Brigadier General (Retired) Kenneth Watkin was a career military legal adviser to the Canadian Forces, who has served in a number of operational, military justice, and general legal advisory positions, most recently as Judge Advocate General for the Canadian Forces. He is widely respected as a scholar of IHL and national security law, with dozens of articles in the field. He won the 2008 Lieber Society Military Prize for his AJIL article, Assessing Proportionality: Moral Complexity and Legal Rules, and served as the Charles H. Stockton Professor of International Law at the U.S. Naval War College from 2011-2012.

Watkin's book can be seen both as a work of operational law and a major scholarly treatment of the law governing the use of force. It provides detailed accounts of how situations arise on the ground that evade easy classification in terms of our existing conceptual and legal categories. These will provide vivid instruction for those not familiar with the reality of modern military operations. At the same time, it furnishes a valuable framework for analyzing the features of such operations that are relevant in assessing how force should be used in particular scenarios. Finally, Watkin offers a set of principles for both operational law and broader policy decisions to help navigate the complex terrain of modern security challenges.