After graduating from Texas A&M University, I enrolled at South Texas College of Law in Houston, Texas.  While law school was a transformative experience in and of itself, I could not have expected that one particular course would change my world forever.  It was during my third year of law school that I registered for a course titled “The Law of Armed Conflict” with Professor Geoffrey Corn — the rest is history.

The LOAC (also known as International Humanitarian Law or IHL) instantly became one of my legal passions.  Since taking the course, I have spent countless hours reading all of the military documents and manuals that I can find; I have started an extensive personal library of LOAC books (and papers) that includes titles by Yoram Dinstein, Gary Solis, Geoffrey Corn, Leslie Green, William Banks, Beth Van Schaack, Laurie Blank, Michael Schmitt, John Yoo, Robert Chesney, and many more; and finally, I have scoured SSRN.com for papers on different LOAC topics.

Immediately following the semester in which I took the LOAC course, I applied for and attended the ICRC IHL Immersion Workshop at the University of Santa Clara’s Center for Global Law and Policy.  Upon returning to law school for my final semester, I took a course in National Security Law.  It was also during that final semester that I was fortunate enough to attend multiple panel discussions on topics concerning the LOAC, Military Commissions, National Security, and Counter terrorism.

While working as a research assistant for my LOAC professor, I began considering a career in a field that somehow incorporated the LOAC and/or National Security Law.  While I am still searching for that particularized job opening, I decided to start the LOACBlog.com.  As you can probably tell, I needed an outlet.

I hope you enjoy the site.

Please feel free to contact me at any time:

• Twitter:  @LOACBlog
• Email: Travis.Normand [at] gmail [dot] com