Recent developments show that powerful states are currently testing the limits of how far they can push their claims to power against other nations. This applies both to the exercise of economic and political pressure and to the use of military force. In doing so, countries are making less and less of a distinction between permissible and impermissible means. Examples range across Russia's policies towards its neighbouring states, they include China's attitude towards Taiwan and in the South China Sea, and they cover U.S. action against Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil as well as against Greenland.
The Research Center “Transformations of Political Violence” (TraCe) plans to discuss these questions with guests in two panel discussions. On the one hand, the discussion will focus on whether the prohibition on interstate intervention and the prohibition on the use of force between states are losing their normative force. On the other hand, it will address whether neutrality of states not directly involved in an armed conflict can still serve to protect such states.
Panel 1: Testing the limits of non-use of force and non-intervention
Dr. Raphaël Cahen, JLU; Dr. Hendrik Simon, PRIF; Prof. Dr. Lisbeth Zimmermann, Goethe-Universität FrankfurtPanel 2: Neutrality as a challenge for non-partnes to current armed conflicts
Dr. Barry de Vries, JLU; Dr. Katja Schöberl, German Red Cross
When: July 8, 2026, 4 p.m.
Where: Justus Liebig University Gießen, Faculty of Law (Room 44), Licher Str. 68, 35394 Gießen or online via Zoom.