Wars are becoming increasingly asymmetrical: conflicts where one party adopts 'different' and often morally controversial means, strategies, and organizational structures to gain the upper hand. Not only terrorist organizations and guerrilla forces, but also some states, including Brazil, Venezuela, and several others, have been known to use asymmetrical conflict strategies as official policy. Tactics including the use of drone planes, cyber-attacks, deployment of child soldiers, and targeted killings are challenging the current legal framework.

Chehtman examines how laws initially devised for more traditional forms of warfare must adapt to contemporary conflicts, and to such tactics. A crucial book on a growing issue, he weighs conflicting theories that either see the law of armed conflicts as accepting the reality of war or consider that the rules should not apply differently in conflict situations as they do in peace.