Benjamin Nussberger

About/Bio

Benjamin Nussberger is a doctoral candidate and research fellow at the Institute for International Peace and Security Law at the University of Cologne. Benjamin holds a Magister Iuris from Heidelberg University, and a LL.M. degree from Columbia Law School, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar, and for which he was awarded the Walter Gellhorn Prize. He has been on academic visit at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the field of the ius ad bellum and general international law. You can find him on Twitter @bknussberger.

Recently Published

“Sustainable Self-Defense”? How the German Government justifies continuing its fight against ISIL in Syria

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria”, US President Trump, tweeted on 19 December 2018. “We just took over 100% caliphate. That means the area of the land.”, he added in March 2019. Nonetheless, until to date, the global coalition against the “Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) continues its military operations in Iraq and…

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Justifying Self-defense against Assisting States: Conceptualizing Legal Consequences of Inter-State Assistance

Cause for thought: Israel’s airstrikes directed against Iran and Syria Israel has acknowledged to have repeatedly struck Iranian military targets in Syria. While confrontations occur frequently, the incident of January 21, 2019 has received  particular attention. Israeli guided missiles, apparently fired over Lebanese territory (UN Doc. S/PV.8449, p. 31f), hit Iranian…

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A Cold War like Thriller in Summer – Icy Times Between Vietnam and Germany

If “all options are on the table” in the international arena, it is a reliable indicator that the stakes are high. We still recall when President Trump put all options on the table in August last year responding to North Korean missile tests. Just a few days before, Germany, usually not known for Trumpish rhetoric, also placed…

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