The politics of international chemical weapon justice: The case of Syria, 2011–2017

ABSTRACT

There has been near-universal condemnation of the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian conflict. The international community has nevertheless struggled to make progress on holding the perpetrators to account. This article reviews developments at the international level in terms of Syrian chemical weapon justice between 2011 and 2017. It argues that there have been substantive disagreements between states on the rationale and means of justice in the Syrian case. It also argues that international initiatives have been tightly intertwined with developments in chemical disarmament and conflict resolution processes as well as the broader war. The article describes progress and challenges to chemical weapon justice in a number of distinct formal international mechanisms during the period studied. The analysis concludes by contextualizing international responses—including the U.S. tomahawk strikes against a Syrian airbase—to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attacks of April 2017.

KEYWORDS:

• Civil war
• peacebuilding
• arms control and disarmament
• United Nations
• international regimes

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank in particular Professor Timo Kivimaki, Dr Scott Thomas, and Luke Cahill for comments on early versions of this paper. The authors would also like to thank Richard Guthrie, Jean Pascal Zanders, and Professor Julian Perry-Robinson for making aspects of their archives available. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers as well as Hylke Dijkstra for their detailed and thoughtful feedback on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on the contributors

Brett Edwards is a Lecturer in Security and Public Policy in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath.

Mattia Cacciatori is a Lecturer in Conflict and Security in the Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies at the University of Bath.

ORCID

Brett Edwards http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1313-2593

Mattia Cacciatori http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2842-6508