Thus, the nature of the support provided by the intervening power is pivotal in the ICRC’s theory. Therefore, the law of NIAC becomes applicable to the intervening power even before the traditional intensity threshold for a distinct NIAC is fulfilled or even if this threshold is never reached by its intervention itself.
In other words, according to the ‘support-based approach’, only one single NIAC exists, ie the pre-existing NIAC, but the intervening power becomes a new party to this conflict, fighting alongside the supported party. Indeed, its main legal effect is to make the intervening power a new party to the pre-existing NIAC, without requiring the hostilities between this power and its enemy to reach the intensity threshold necessary to trigger a new separate NIAC. This new theory helps to define the ratione personae scope of application of International Humanitarian Law (IHL). The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recently developed a new theory, entitled ‘support-based approach’, which deals with foreign interventions by ‘one or more States, a coalition of States or an international or regional organization’ in a pre-existing non-international armed conflict (NIAC) in support to one of the parties to this conflict.
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