Part I. The Legal Nature of War: 1. What is war? -- The course of war -- Part II. The Illegality of War -- A historical perspective of the legal status of war -- The contemporary prohibition of the use of inter-state force -- The crime of aggression -- Controversial consequences of the change in the legal status of war -- Part III. Exceptions to the Prohibition of the Use of Inter-State Force -- The concept of self-defence -- The modalities of individual self-defence -- Collective self-defence -- Collective security.

"Yoram Dinstein's influential textbook is an indispensable guide to the legal issues of war and peace, armed attack, self-defence and enforcement measures taken under the aegis of the Security Council. This fifth edition incorporates recent treaties such as the Kampala amendments of the Statute of the International Criminal Court, new case law from the International Court of Justice and other tribunals, and contemporary doctrinal debates. Several new supplementary sections are also included, which take into account recent conflicts around the world, and consideration is given to new resolutions of the Security Council. With many segments having been rewritten to reflect recent State practice, this book remains a wide-ranging and highly readable introduction to the legal issues surrounding war and self-defence"--

"War has plagued homo sapiens since the dawn of recorded history and, at almost any particular moment in the annals of the species, it appears to be raging in at least a portion of the globe (frequently, in many places at one and the same time). War has consistently been a, perhaps the, most brutal human endeavour. If for no other reason, the subject of war should be examined and reexamined continuously. There is a tendency today to avoid the use of the term 'war', regarding it as arcane and largely superseded by the phrase 'international armed conflict'. However, apart from the fact that the expression 'war' - appearing as it does in many international instruments and constituting an integral part of a host of customary international legal norms - is far from outdated, a general reference to international armed conflicts ignores the important theoretical as well as practical distinctions existing between wars and other uses of inter-State force ('short of war')"--