From Al-Qaida in 2001 to ISIL in 2015: The Security Council's decisions on terrorism and their impact on the right to self-defense against autonomous non-state actors

Abstract

“The fortunes of war more than any other are liable to frequent fluctuations,” said Don Quixote. Prominent voices certainly embraced this logic regarding a right to self-defense against autonomous non-State actors shortly after 9/11 , mainly as a result of Resolutions 1368 and 1373 (2001) adopted by the Security Council in the aftermath of the infamous terrorist attacks. Others argued that these resolutions had lowered the threshold of attribution to States of actions carried out by non-State actors, in the sense that States would be held responsible for armed attacks consummated by terrorist groups that the former had either actively or passively supported.