Good afternoon. I am Lucy Reed, a former president of the American Society, filling in for Greg Shaffer because there is another ongoing meeting. I am happy to welcome you all to the policy keynote, which is not a keynote. It will be a dialogue between Ambassador Katherine Tai and Professor Julian Arato. This is the very first event and moved up from Friday to today. So we welcome you all and are grateful for your flexibility.

Terrestrial resource extraction has been a part of the human experience for eons. Soon, humanity may move away from digging in the earth the extracting resources among the stars.

The adoption of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 marked a watershed moment in the development of international humanitarian law (IHL). Seventy-five years later, international and non-international armed conflicts—including in Ethiopia, Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Palestine—continue to rage around the world. The circumstances of conflict are also changing. Participation in conflict by non-state armed groups, private militaries, security companies, and mercenaries, as well as by sub-regional coalitions, is on the rise.

Thank you, Dean Fairfax, for your warm introduction and thanks also to the American Society of International Law and the American University Washington College of Law for this invitation.

Good morning, everyone. My name is John Swords. I am the legal adviser at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) headquarters. It is a great honor to be with you here in Washington seventy-five years to the day after the North Atlantic treaty was signed here in Washington in 1949. When those twelve original allies committed to collective defense, to treat an attack on one as an attack on all, they were motivated by a desire to defend democracies against Soviet aggression in Europe and beyond. And in that sense, unfortunately, the alliance has come full circle today. Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine has once again shattered peace in Europe and once again threatens the values of democracy, freedom, and the rule of law that are enshrined in the North Atlantic Treaty. But once again, nations have rallied around NATO in response, including new allies Finland and Sweden, who are now signatories to the treaty.

The discussion on the International Law Commission Draft Articles on the Protection of Persons in the Event of Disasters (ILC DAsPPED)1 is at a critical stage. Based on UN General Assembly Resolution 76/119, the Sixth Committee set up a working group to “consider further the recommendation of the Commission for the elaboration of a convention by the General Assembly or by an international conference of plenipotentiaries on the basis of the draft articles or any other potential course of action with respect to the draft articles.”2 This working group is expected to make “a recommendation to the Assembly as to any further action to take in respect of the draft articles” in the fall of 2024. Therefore, it is an opportune time to assess the DAsPPED from an academic perspective.3

The Manley O. Hudson Medal is the highest honor bestowed by the Society, reserved for a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to scholarship and achievement in international law. I was not on the Awards Committee but, if I had been, I would have chosen you. I am honored that you chose me as your interlocutor.

The Goler T. Butcher Medal Lecture Award was first awarded in 1997. It is awarded to a distinguished person of American or other nationality for outstanding contributions to the development or effective realization of international human rights. It is named for Goler Teal Butcher, a prominent African-American scholar and professor at Howard University School of Law, who also worked at the U.S. Agency for International Development in the Carter administration, where she committed a lot of her time and efforts to the elimination of global hunger.