Civilians In War

Accidental harm to civilians in warfare often becomes an occasion for public outrage, from citizens of both the victimized and the victimizing nation. In this vitally important book on a topic of acute concern for anyone interested in military strategy, international security, or human rights, Alexander B. Downes reminds readers that democratic and authoritarian governments alike will sometimes deliberately kill large numbers of civilians as a matter of military strategy. What leads governments to make such a choice? Downes examines several historical cases: British counterinsurgency tactics during the Boer War, the starvation blockade used by the Allies against Germany in World War I, Axis and Allied bombing campaigns in World War II, and ethnic cleansing in the Palestine War. He concludes that governments decide to target civilian populations for two main reasons—desperation to reduce their own military casualties or avert defeat, or a desire to seize and annex enemy territory. When a state's military fortunes take a turn for the worse, he finds, civilians are more likely to be declared legitimate targets to coerce the enemy state to give up. When territorial conquest and annexation are the aims of warfare, the population of the disputed land is viewed as a threat and the aggressor state may target those civilians to remove them. Democracies historically have proven especially likely to target civilians in desperate circumstances. In Targeting Civilians in War, Downes explores several major recent conflicts, including the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Civilian casualties occurred in each campaign, but they were not the aim of military action. In these cases, Downes maintains, the achievement of quick and decisive victories against overmatched foes allowed democracies to win without abandoning their normative beliefs by intentionally targeting civilians. Whether such "restraint" can be guaranteed in future conflicts against more powerful adversaries is, however, uncertain. During times of war, democratic societies suffer tension between norms of humane conduct and pressures to win at the lowest possible costs. The painful lesson of Targeting Civilians in War is that when these two concerns clash, the latter usually prevails.

Det er en udbredt antagelse, at krig skaber to slags mennesker: soldater og civile. Men har historien ikke vist os, at denne forsimplede antagelse er smertelig uklar? Civilians at War behandler en række spørgsmål, der knytter sig til de måder, hvorpå en krigs sociale grupperinger – og særligt de grupper, som fordrer aktiv deltagelse – tager sig ud i forskellige historiske og geografiske sammenhænge. Ved hjælp af casestudier fra Europa, Afrika og Sydamerika fra det 15. århundrede til nutiden belyser antologiens bidragydere den traditionelle modsætning mellem civil og soldat og tilbyder herigennem nye forståelser af den komplekse mellemposition, civile befinder sig i under krig. Gunner Lind er professor i tidlig moderne historie ved afdeling for Historie på Saxo-Instituttet, Københavns Universitet. Bidragydere: Steffen Jensen er seniorforsker ved DIGNITY – Dansk Institut Mod Tortur Lars Bo Kaspersen er professor ved Institut for Statskundskab, Københavns Universitet Gunner Lind er professor ved Saxo-Instituttet, Københavns Universitet Jeppe Büchert Netterstrøm er lektor ved Institut for Kultur og Samfund, Aarhus Universitet Palle Roslyng-Jensen er lektor ved Saxo-Instituttet, Københavns Universitet Robin May Schott er seniorforsker ved Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier Finn Stepputat er seniorforsker ved Dansk Institut for Internationale Studier We often think of war as creating two different kinds of people: soldiers and civilians. But hasn’t history taught us that this distinction is painfully nebulous? The contributors to this volume, writing from different disciplinary vantages, address a number of important issues connected to the ways in which the social distinctions and divisions surrounding war — especially those that determine participation — play out across different historical and geographical settings. Contextualizing the dichotomy of civilian and combatant against these larger complexities, this book offers a new understanding of the problematic middle ground that civilians occupy during wartime. Gunner Lind is professor of early modern history at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of many books in Danish and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Contributors: Steffen Jensen is Senior Researcher at DIGNITY – Danish Institute Against Torture Lars Bo Kaspersen is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen Gunner Lind is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Copenhagen Jeppe Büchert Netterstrøm is Associate Professor at the Section of History, Aarhus University Palle Roslyng-Jensen is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Copenhagen Robin May Schott is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies Finn Stepputat is Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies

While recognizing the changing face of war casualties (the civilian casualty rate has escalated from five percent in World War I to up to 90 percent in recent conflicts), the 1949 Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians has not been able to reverse that trend. In this project of the International Peace Academy, with which the editor is affiliated, a dozen essays endeavor to expand the tools available to protect civilians in times of war. They address the themes of the evolving norms of international humanitarian law, inducing compliance, enforcing compliance, and reevaluating protection by reviewing traditional assumptions and new needs to deal at the local level with unconventional belligerents like guerillas. c. Book News Inc.

This book explores the issue of civilian devastation in modern warfare, focusing on the complex processes that effectively establish civilians’ identity in times of war. Underpinning the physicality of war’s tumult are structural forces that create landscapes of civilian vulnerability. Such forces operate in four sectors of modern warfare: nationalistic ideology, state-sponsored militaries, global media, and international institutions. Each sector promotes its own constructions of civilian identity in relation to militant combatants: constructions that prove lethal to the civilian noncombatant who lacks political power and decision-making capacity with regards to their own survival. Civilians and Modern War provides a critical overview of the plight of civilians in war, examining the political and normative underpinnings of the decisions, actions, policies, and practices of major sectors of war. The contributors seek to undermine the ‘tunnelling effect’ of the militaristic framework regarding the experiences of noncombatants. This book will be of much interest to students of war and conflict studies, ethics, conflict resolution, and IR/Security Studies.

Civilians and War in Europe 1618–1815 is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary look at the role of civilians in early modern warfare, from the Thirty Years War to the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Drawing on works by scholars in art, literature, history, and political theory, the contributors to this volume explore the continuities and transformations in warfare over the course of two hundred years, examining topics central to civilian and war dynamics, including incarceration, cultures of plunder, billeting, and wartime atrocities, in addition to the larger legal practices and philosophical underpinnings of warfare and its aftermath. Showcasing the complex ways civilians were involved in war—not just as anguished sufferers, but as individuals who fought back, who profited, and who negotiated for their own needs—Civilians and War in Europe probes what it meant to be a civilian in countries deeply involved in conflict.

When civilians suffer in war, it is often a deliberate act. Massacres, rape, displacement, famine, and disease are the strategic decisions of political and military leaders who make civilians their targets in order to gain the upper hand in battle. Yet there still exists the precious and fragile belief-ingrained in modern international law-that unarmed and innocent people should be protected in war, even if, in practice, the principle of civil immunity is often ignored or rejected. Hoping to rectify this injustice, Hugo Slim uses detailed historical and contemporary examples to reveal the many ways civilians suffer in war. A leading commentator on international humanitarian action and the protection of civilians in war, Slim analyzes the anti-civilian ideologies that encourage and perpetuate suffering and exposes the exploitation of moral ambiguity that is used to sanction extreme hostility. At what point does killing civilians become part of winning a war? Why are some methods of killing used while others are avoided? Bolstering his claims with hard fact, Slim argues that civilian casualties are not only morally reprehensible but also bad military science. His book is a clarion call for action and a passionate defense of civil immunity, a concept that is more urgent and necessary today than ever before.

This book explores the role played by civilians in shaping the outcomes of military combat across time and place. This volume explores the contributions civilians have made to warfare in case studies that range from ancient Europe to contemporary Africa and Latin America. Building on philosophical and legal scholarship, it explores the blurred boundary between combatant and civilian in different historical contexts and examines how the absence of clear demarcations shapes civilian strategic positioning and impacts civilian vulnerability to military targeting and massacre. The book argues that engagement with the blurred boundaries between combatant and non-combatant both advance the key analytical questions that underpin the historical literature on civilians and underline the centrality of civilians to a full understanding of warfare. The volume provides new insight into why civilian death and suffering has been so common, despite widespread beliefs embedded in legal and military codes across time and place that killing civilians is wrong. Ultimately, the case studies in the book show that civilians, while always victims of war, were nevertheless often able to become empowered agents in defending their own lives, and impacting the outcomes of wars. By highlighting civilian military agency and broadening the sense of which actors affect strategic outcomes, the book also contributes to a richer understanding of war itself. This book will be of much interest to students of military studies, international history, international relations and war and conflict studies.

The protection of noncombatants from deadly violence is the centrepiece of any account of ethical and legal constraints on war. It was a major achievement of moral progress from early modern times to World War I. Yet it has been under constant attrition since - perhaps never more so than in our time, with its 'new wars', the spectre of weapons of mass destruction, and the global terrorism alert. Civilian Immunity in War presents eleven specially written essays on the main aspects of this highly topical subject. Written in a clear and non-technical style, this volume will appeal to students and researchers in philosophy, politics, and law, as well as anyone with an interest in the ethics and legality of war.