Welcome to USMA Athena
USMA Athena is a secure digital service managed by the United States Military Academy Library to make the work of USMA scholars freely available, while also ensuring these resources are organized to preserve the legacy of USMA scholarship. The mission of USMA Athena is to showcase the academic impact and intellectual capital that has become synonymous with the celebrated heritage of educational prowess attributed to the Long Gray Line. Scholarship submitted to USMA Athena benefits from added visibility and discoverability via Google Scholar in addition to the use of persistent URLs that will provide enduring access to the work over time.
Recent Submissions
Item The Legality of Electromagnetic Interference with Maritime Autonomous Vehicles(Routledge, 2024-12-31)With the growth of drones and their proven effectiveness in warfighting, parallel efforts have emerged to develop counter-drone capabilities. One such capability is electromagnetic interference such as radio jamming to disrupt or deny access to radio frequency signals or spoofing by transmitting false signals. Greater use and sophistication of counter-drone electronic capabilities has the potential to ensure safety of flight and navigation for sovereign vessels on the high seas against uncrewed systems, such as remotely piloted and autonomous vehicles in international air space, on the water’s surface, and within the water column. In addition, electronic capabilities have the potential application as a means of exercising the coastal state’s jurisdiction and control over these systems when passing through its territorial waters. On the other hand, these systems could themselves generate electromagnetic interference that threatens maritime security. Counter-drone capabilities could also lead to unlawful restriction of navigational rights. This chapter considers the legality of electromagnetic interference with the navigation and communication of uncrewed systems to ensure safety of flight and navigation in international waters or in the exercise of enforcement jurisdiction under international law. It does so by examining the general obligation of due regard on the high seas, the coastal state’s rights of protection within its territorial waters, and in the context of military vehicles, its obligations under general international law relating to the prohibition of the use of force.Item Legal Aspects of Grey Zone and Hybrid Threats: A Primer(Oxford University Press, 2024-04)Is legal uncertainty within the existing structure of international law truly responsible for a grey zone that hostile actors can exploit by employing hybrid tactics? This chapter argues that the ability of hostile actors to exploit a grey zone by employing hybrid tactics does not derive from legal lacunae in which they can operate with impunity but rather represents structural problems of international law. The chapter critically considers how the existing structure of international law contributes to the growth of hybrid threats as a strategic choice of hostile actors, causing law-abiding states to suffer a disadvantage to the detriment of their security.Item Bebas-Aktif: On the Law of Neutrality Applicable to Indonesia(Indonesian Journal of International Law, 2025)Tensions have heightened in the Indo-Pacific, with the People’s Republic of China engaging in aggressive behaviors in the South China Sea, confronting India in border disputes, and poising itself for a forcible unification of Taiwan in the midst of a great power competition with the United States. While the situation remains precarious, it is imperative for Indonesia to consider how it might position itself if a large-scale armed conflict erupted in the region. Indonesia could plausibly maintain a neutral status without taking part in hostilities, pursuant to its long-standing “free-active” foreign policy. In such a case, the law of neutrality will regulate Indonesia’s relationship with belligerent parties according to corresponding rights and obligations derived from neutral status. However, this body of law is in a state of constant flux, with pragmatic considerations often prevailing over normative consistency. This article explores how Indonesia might implement the law of neutrality to maintain peaceful relations with belligerent parties, with a focus on three specific issues pertaining to its national interest: (1) closure of its archipelagic waters; (2) arms export control; and (3) the protection of its cyber infrastructure. This article concludes by finding that Indonesia is well positioned to make a pragmatic choice based on the geopolitical and socioeconomic conditions prevailing at the time but must pre-empt various legal risks by building its practice and expressing its opinio juris to shape the development of customary international law in this field.Item The Protection of Nationals Abroad and Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations in Times of Crisis(Journal of National Security Law & Policy, 2024-01)Ronald Alcala and Hitoshi Nasu discuss the legal basis for conducting non-combatant evacuation operations (NEO), a type of military operation conducted in a foreign state’s territory, designed to protect and rescue the operating state’s nationals. The legality of such operations has been debated for decades, and the potentially associated legal constraints surrounding them may hinder or restrict the freedom of action available to an operating state’s forces engaged in a NEO. Alcala and Nasu conclude that clarity of the legal basis for evacuation operations, and the applicable legal framework under which the operation must be conducted before committing troops to the task, can help evacuation forces better prepare for and respond lawfully to threats that arise in theater.Item The Rule of Law in Armed Conflict(Minnesota Journal of International Law, 2025-01)A fundamental problem in the relationship between war and law has emerged, with two diverging approaches to conceptualizing how law applies to the conduct of hostilities: the operational application for the implementation of legal obligations during combat operations, on the one hand, and the adjudicative application for prosecution and reparation, on the other. Diverging approaches stem from institutional and practical constraints on adjudication, testing the fundamental premise upon which international law operates as a political project to manage international order under the rule of law. This article addresses the doctrinal manifestation of this trend and articulates the parameters in which battlefield conduct can be adjudicated without infringing upon the underlying logic of the law by adhering to its consistent, equal, and objective application.
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