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Backgrounder: Can U.S. Invoke 'Hot Pursuit' in Syria?

Council on Foreign Relations

Author: Lionel Beehner, Staff Writer
May 24, 2007

Introduction

Most of the foreign-born insurgents in Iraq enter the country through the Syrian border, U.S. officials estimate. They have warned Syria to stop the flow of these suicide bombers but no avail. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed her Syrian counterpart on this issue recently at an Iraqi security conference in Egypt. But some military experts have called on the U.S. military to raise the ante with Damascus by conducting cross-border raids by Special Forces or targeted air attacks to curtail the activities of these jihadis on Syrian soil. They argue that such a strike would be justified under international law and cite a principle known as “hot pursuit.” But some international legal scholars dispute whether the doctrine could be applied in this case and refute the notion that U.S. forces could justify an air or ground strike against targets in Syria, however limited in scope.

What is the principle of 'hot pursuit'?

The doctrine generally pertains to the law of the seas and the ability of one state’s navy to pursue a foreign ship that has violated laws and regulations in its territorial waters (twelve nautical miles from shore), even if the ship flees to the high seas. “It means you are literally and temporally in pursuit and following the tail of a fugitive,” says Michael P. Scharf of the Case Western School of Law. “[A state] is allowed to temporarily violate borders to make an apprehension under those circumstances.” The principle is enshrined in Article 111 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and in Article 23 of the 1958 Convention on the High Seas. The United States has signed but not ratified the former treaty, but signed and ratified the latter.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2007 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.