The Dangerous Rise of Dual-Use Objects in War

Authors

Oona A. Hathaway
Azmat Khan
Mara R. Revkin, Duke Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

Each day, the news brings stories of military attacks on schools, hospitals, apartment buildings, electrical facilities, and other critical civilian infrastructure. The militaries attacking these objects often seek to justify the attacks by claiming that the civilian objects are being used by militants. Objects that are believed to have both military and civilian use are often referred to as “dual-use” objects. Even though the term has become common, international law does not recognize a “dual-use” object as a legally meaningful category. Rather, the postwar Geneva Conventions that lie at the core of modern international humanitarian law establish a bright line between “military objectives” that are considered legitimate targets of military force, and civilians and “civilian objects,” which are to be strictly protected.

We show in this Article that the targeting of dual-use objects over the last several decades has blurred this line, placing civilians at great risk. The United States has played a critical role in the increasingly expansive targeting of dual-use objects. Indeed, most accounts of the origins of dual-use targeting start with the 1991 Gulf War, in which the U.S.-led coalition responded to Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait with airstrikes on Iraq’s electrical infrastructure and bridges. The Article reviews the history of dual-use targeting and presents an original dataset and primary-source evidence from the sites of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria from 2014 to 2018 to illustrate the wide range of dual-use objects that the U.S. military has struck. It draws on ground reporting and research to show the true costs of this dual-use targeting for civilians living in areas of conflict. The United States is far from alone in targeting dual-use objects, but we focus on it because it shapes the law of armed conflict by projecting force around the world, providing legal justifications for its use of force, and setting the standards by which other states are measured. Finally, this Article recommends that states engaging in military operations collect better information about dual-use objects so that they can make better-informed targeting decisions. We also offer several recommendations for clarifying international humanitarian law to prevent further erosion of the protections the law provides to civilians during war.

Citation

Oona A. Hathaway et al., The Dangerous Rise of Dual-Use Objects in War, 134 Yale Law Journal 2645-2750 (2025)