Internationalized internal armed conflict

The expression “internationalized armed conflicts” is not a legal expression as such and does not imply a third category of armed conflicts.  The expression rather describes situations of non-international armed conflicts with a dimension that is said to be “international”. This dimension can take several forms:

1) One or more third States or an international/regional organization (the States or the organization acting through a multinational force) intervene in support of a state involved in an armed conflict against an organized armed group 2) One or more third States or an international/regional organization (the States or the organization acting through a multinational force) intervene in support of an organized armed group involved in an armed conflict against a State 3) Other possible combinations between situations 1), 2) and 3).

From a legal point of view, these situations can be translated into three specific cases:

-        Some remain a non-international armed conflict -        Others become an international armed conflict -        Others become “mixed” conflicts. In such conflicts, depending on the nature of parties to the conflict, IHL of non-international armed conflicts applies to the relations between some parties (e.g. between an armed group and an intervening outside State), while IHL of international armed conflicts applies to other relations, e.g. between to States intervening militarily in support of two adverse parties of a NIAC)

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