In 2015 and 2016, we strove to improve the Military Law and the Law of War Review. The board of directors and the editorial board have been reconstituted in an effort to optimize the handling of submissions and the peer review process.

Our approach to referencing the publication year has also been revised. Although the Review regularly addresses events that took place in the previous year, it will typically only go to press after the publication year has come to a close. This modus operandi could give the erroneous impression that the Review is continually hampered by delayed publication. We have put this problem to rest by matching each issue with the academic year.

From 2016-2017 onwards, the Review will shift up a gear: articles will be posted online as soon as their publication in the Review has been approved. We will keep you informed of these innovations. You will continue to receive the familiar print edition as we expand our services into the digital realm at no additional cost. Thanks to these improvements readers will be informed in a timely fashion about new legal articles of relevance to current events.

The period covered in this edition is marked by the bloody conflicts in Iraq and Syria, the foreign fighters phenomenon and the acts of terrorism perpetrated by ISIS adherents. Several articles in this issue analyse various aspects of the above topics, ranging from participation in hostilities and the supplying of arms to belligerents to measures adopted in Western nations to fight the surge of foreign fighters.

The second part contains contributions addressing other facets of international law, such as the criminalization of offences committed by certain categories of UN personnel, the notion of superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering and the conviction of Jean-Pierre Bemba by the International Criminal Court. True to tradition, this issue also features an article on military justice, this time focusing on countries in South Asia.

April 2015 saw the hosting in Prague of the 20th international triennial Congress of the International Society for Military Law and the Law of War. You will find a report of this activity in this issue. And, of course, we have included a listing of recent publications that might be of interest to you.