Part 3 The Post 9/11-Era (2001–), 62 Threats of and Actual Military Strikes Against Syria—2013 and 2017

Subject(s):

Precedent — International law and international relations — International organizations — Armed attack

This chapter examines the threats of military intervention expressed by the United States, the United Kingdom and France in reaction to the use of chemical weapons during an attack in the Ghouta area of Damascus in 2013 as well as the military strikes launched by the United States following the use of chemical weapons during an attack in the Khan Sheikhun area of Southern Idlib in 2017. After recalling the facts and context of the Syrian crisis, it studies the legal positions of the main protagonists (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) and the reactions of third States and international organisations. The final section analyses the envisaged and actual intervention’s precedential value and its impact on the jus ad bellum. It argues that targeting the military assets of a sovereign State as a reaction to violations of international law that this State has supposedly committed is far from being unanimously accepted from a legal point of view.