By Daniel Mahanty False promises are at the heart of making war. In August 1914, German and British soldiers were sent to the front on the false promise they would be home by Christmas, as were American soldiers shipped to Korea 36 years later. The Vietnam War and Iraq War were both started and sustained by false promises…
Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) shares regular updates about the work of our global programs. Our US program, helmed by US Program Director, Daniel R. Mahanty, works with US institutions to protect civilians trapped in conflict around the world. This biweekly newsletter is compiled by the program’s fellows. The US in Afghanistan The…
By Daniel R. Mahanty and Elena Crespo Each year, the United States spends $19.5 billion a year on security cooperation and assistance, more than 130 countries and territories in the world spend on their entire defense budgets. Not surprisingly, in the period since Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. funding has increased markedly for security partnerships focused on countering terrorism and…
February 3, 2021 By Daniel R. Mahanty On Sept. 27, 2018, the U.S.-led coalition, Operation Inherent Resolve, released a statement listing 50 confirmed incidents of civilian casualties caused by airstrikes in Iraq and Syria. First on the list, an incident in Iraq described in 23 words: “August 13, 2016, near Qayyarah, Iraq, via media report.…
For the last three years, the UN Secretary-General has highlighted the need for states to take concrete steps to incorporate safeguards for protecting civilians in states’ partnered military and security arrangements in the annual report on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict. In December of 2020, the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights,…
December 8, 2020 By Daniel R. Mahanty and Elias Yousif When Biden takes his seat behind the Resolute desk, he will face the competing demands of ending America’s “forever wars” and simultaneously countering lingering threats of terrorism. Biden’s immediate predecessors chose to navigate these narrow straits by limiting the role of conventional U.S. forces in…
August 20, 2020 By Dan Mahanty So who is responsible for the duration of America’s forever wars? In his recent brief for the Quincy Institute, non-resident fellow Samuel Moyn directs the spotlight in a counterintuitive, and discomfiting, direction — toward the members of civil society that advocate for limiting civilian suffering in war. By focusing…
By Dan Mahanty March feels like a decade and a thousand COVID-19 news cycles ago, so you could be forgiven for having missed the news that on March 31, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) publicly committed to issuing a quarterly public report on civilian casualties alleged to have resulted from U.S. military operations. According to the press release, the…
February 20, 2020 – For the general public, the notion of a military investigation into a civilian death may conjure thoughts of investigations into high-profile incidents, such as the attack on the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in 2015, or war crimes like the notorious murder and immolation of Afghan children by Staff Sgt. Robert Bales in…