Extra-territorial rendition is a legitimate tool in the war against terrorist organizations.

Traditionally war has been waged between states. States threatened other states by acquiring armies, weapons, structures. But modern warfare is different. Increasingly violent non-state actors are gaining enough power to pose a real threat to civilians, without the need for armies in the traditional sense. They use unconventional methods of warfare that cannot be countered by traditional methods that are used in state to state warfare. They exploit the vulnerabilities of the social orders of the state performing surprise attacks on civilian structures and inflicting many casualties among completely innocent and unprepared people. Conflict between states and non-state actors are fundamentally different from conventional warfare where damage to civilians can be limited and the fighting mainly goes on between soldiers abiding by international rules of law. The very strength of these violent non-state actors like terrorist networks lies in the fact that individuals from that network can hide within other states and are very difficult to find, capture and bring to justice. They can spend years plotting an attack against the state while hiding out in a state that either has no interest, no means or is hostile toward the other state. All the while a danger looms over the target state and we on the opposition side believe that it has to be allowed to use the means of extra-territorial rendition to eliminate the threat. Why is using extra-territorial rendition justified? Firstly because it is done in self-defense. When seeking out terrorists from other countries the state is seeking to prevent harm being done to it's citizens. We do not doubt the ethics of self-defense. International law recognizes that a state can resort to self-defense when attacked by another state. Why should the right to self-defence disappear if the security threat is a non-state actor? States should be allowed to use extra-territorial rendition as a method of self-defense, because what else can they do to defend themselves if the terrorists are outside their territory. Indeed sometimes the only way that the state can exercise their right to self-defense is through extra-territorial rendition. Of course it is preferrable if the state where the terrorist is hiding will willingly cooperate with the rendition and seek to disarm the terrorist, but this cannot always be the case. For example, US has for many years sought from Lebanon the extradition of Mohammad Ali Hamadi, who participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Imad Fayez Mugniyah—head of security for the Lebanese group Hizballah, is also wanted by the US for his role in the hijacking of TWA and although there is strong evidence to the contrary Lebanese persistently denies his presence in Lebanon [[G. S. McNeal, B. J. Field. 2007. Snatch-and-grab ops: Justifying Extraterriotorial abduction. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=961048%5D%5D. If the state doesn't cooperate then the only way that the other state can achieve the capture of the dangerous terrorist is through the disregard of the sovereignty of the non-cooperating state and use extra-territorial rendition to capture the criminal. This disregard of the right to sovereignty however is not aimed to damage the integrity, sovereignty or institutions of the non-cooperating state, but serve only to capture the dangerous non-state actor. The state who is under the threat of terrorism is thus acting in non-aggressive towards the non-cooperating state, seeking only to eliminate the threat posed to it.