The year 2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the launching of 'Operation Enduring Freedom'. For Americans, this is one of the longest wars in the history of their country, but when the American forces started to bomb Afghanistan the population of that country had already been suffering the ravages of civil wars, foreign intervention, and oppressive regimes for over twenty years. The Afghan conflict poses several challenges: that of building up stability in a territory ravaged by three decades of conflicts; that of the adequacy of the law to deal with the current crisis; and that of humanitarian action conducted by actors with varying goals and methods who are all operating in the same context.