According to Joint Publication 3-0, legitimacy is one of the twelve principles of joint operations. Doctrinally, the purpose of legitimacy is to “maintain legal and moral authority” during military operations. Moreover, the manual continues, it “is based on the actual and perceived legality, morality, and rightness of the actions from the various perspectives of relevant actors, stakeholders, and other interested audiences”—which include “our national leadership and domestic population, governments, and civilian populations in the [operational area] and nations and organizations around the world.”

Within that broad doctrinal definition, however, lie considerable complexities, particularly in the context of urban operations. How is legitimacy determined in practice? How should we understand the ways in which the laws of war, rules of engagement, national policies, and civilian harm mitigation measures overlap—and how they differ? How can rules of engagement and policies change in different missions, theaters, operating environments, and wars? And why, precisely, is it so important for militaries to understand and communicate these differences to all stakeholders in a battle for legitimacy?

To address those questions and more, John Spencer is joined on this episode of the Urban Warfare Project Podcast by Professor Laurie Blank. She is a clinical professor of law and director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law. From 2022 to 2024, she was the special counsel to the general counsel at the Department of Defense. Her most recent book is International Conflict and Security Law, and she is also the coauthor of International Law and Armed Conflict: Fundamental Principles and Contemporary Challenges in the Law of War, a casebook on the law of war.

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Image credit: Lisa Ferdinando, DoD