International humanitarian law and the Western imperial project

Abstract

This work deals with International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and with the Western imperialist project, by clarifying the ideological background of the creators of this law and their relationship with the project and the Western expansionist context. It also attempts to understand the paradox that International Humanitarian Law created so the colonial past could be eliminated, but after a hundred and twenty years, it still uses the same arguments to exclude a certain category from the scope of application of its provisions. The article explains as well which category is excluded historically from the provisions’ report of this law, which can be called “the other” non-European or non-Western. Likewise, it points out the mechanics of International Humanitarian Law for the process of exclusion and inclusion. It will be explained how IHL carried out a compulsive humanization process of war by imposing the Western model of fighting and making it a standard for the inclusion of “the other” in the provisions of this law and which states and groups that fall under the name “the other” will fail to implement it, due to the difference in the historical context of social and cultural development of their nation. Finally, it will be established general conclusions related to the consequences of this merger between the law and the imperialist project on the field within the so-called war against terrorism.