Unconventional warfare: The International Committee of the Red Cross and humanitarian dilemmas in Korea 1950-53

Abstract

In the years immediately after the Second World War, a new global humanitarian order was established, centred on the United Nations and on the International Committee of the Red Cross 1949 Geneva Conventions. This new order was first put to the test in Korea, where war broke out in mid-1950. Focusing on the problems of the protection of prisoners of war and civilian detainees, this article explores the challenges posed to the new humanitarian order by the Korean War. A close examination of the events of that war reveals the origins of some humanitarian dilemmas that have survived into the twenty-first century.