November 10, 2020 By Beatrice Godefroy and Liza Baran Imagine that you live in one of the isolated villages located near the contact line in Eastern Ukraine. What would your life look like? Statistics show a 61% probability you would be a woman, 41% likelihood you would be over 60 years old, and 13% chance…
Following newly public allegations that British SAS forces executed unarmed Afghan civilians during a 2011 raid of a compound believed to be housing Taliban militants, the historian Andrew Roberts opined in The Sunday Times that UK military forces fighting terrorist groups should not be bound by the Geneva Conventions – which form the core of…
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…
Supporting the implementation of mandated tasks through digital technologies By Lauren Spink UN peace operations need to employ new technologies to enhance their ability to implement their mandates more effectively in the complex conflict contexts where they are currently deployed and to adapt to changing conflict dynamics in the future. Of the 13 UN peacekeeping…
By Annie Shiel On June 22, the Department of Defense (DOD) issued an interim policy regulation for providing ex gratia payments to civilians harmed as a result of U.S. military operations. The issuance of this regulation is a welcome step forward in institutionalizing the practice of making amends and recognizing the significant harm that occurs in military operations. However,…
By Seán Smith The United Nations Security Council is in the final stages of renewing the mandate for the peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA. As the council takes action, it should ensure that the U.N. and member states sustain their efforts to give the mission the resources – particularly critical air assets – it desperately…
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…
By Annie Shiel and Dan Mahanty On March 3, the House Rules Committee held a rare bipartisan hearing on the erosion of congressional checks and balances on the executive branch’s ability to involve the country in war. The hearing was a welcome step in addressing executive overreach on national security and war powers, an issue that has…
By Federico Borello Following a week of reduced violence, with as much as an 80 percent drop in major attacks, fighting quickly resumed in Afghanistan. Having recently been in Kabul, I observed the countless ways that years of fighting have impacted the lives of individuals who want peace. Resumed violence so soon after the U.S. and the Taliban signed…