The German State against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. How the use of force is justified by treaties of the European Union and the United Nations

Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 7,5, Leiden University, language: English, abstract: This essay argues that based on treaties of the EU and UN it is justified for the German state to use violence against ISIS. Since the appearance of the so called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014, the world has changed. ISIS is a terrorist group which is responsible for thousands of deaths in the Middle East and Europe and has become a serious threat for non-supporters of the Muslim values that ISIS wants to impose on every country that does not represent those beliefs. To reach their target, ISIS destroys historic buildings, for example in Palmyra, uses violence, and evokes fear throughout the world, as ISIS uses media to film and show their brutal acts to make millions of people becoming their witnesses. Consequently, whole countries are horrified because of the brutality of ISIS and fear to be the next target. As time passed, increasing numbers of countries, even EU-countries, and individual groups started to fight against ISIS, trying to prevent more civilians to become victims of the terrorist group and to pursue their own security interests. As ISIS expanded their target group to European countries, killing hundreds of people in Paris in 2015 by bomb attacks, the German government decided to use violence against ISIS in Syria. However, as will be demonstrated below, that decision is a 'hot-button' topic because the opinions about the use of force by a State to stop a terrorist group are diverse and not everyone agrees on that. The purpose of this essay is to show that the use of violence by the German State against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is justified, taking into consideration treaties by the UN and the EU.