Op-Ed Archives | Center for Civilians in Conflict

Ukraine must do more to protect civilians living close to the conflict contact line

Blog, Op-EdBy Beatrice Godefroy August 12, 2021

By Beatrice Godefroy and Suleiman Mamutov On July 22, 2020, representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) agreed to implement an enhanced ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. In the months that followed, ceasefire violations significantly decreased and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported zero conflict-related civilian casualties resulting from…

Even a Short War Over Taiwan or the Baltics Would Be Devastating

Blog, Op-EdBy Daniel R. Mahanty July 29, 2021

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…

Protecting Civilians in Mali – More UN Peacekeepers Is Only Part of the Solution

Blog, Op-EdBy Seán Smith July 16, 2021

By Seán Smith The United Nations secretary-general is expected to deliver a report to the Security Council today that will make recommendations for or against the deployment of additional peacekeepers to the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The report, which should be made public within weeks, is the result of a compromise struck towards…

Preparedness in urban operations: a commander’s planning checklist to protect civilians

Blog, Op-EdBy Monica Zuraw May 13, 2021

By Sahr Muhammedally May 11, 2021 – Protecting civilians in urban operations is complex. Separating military targets from civilian populations is hard in any environment, but in urban areas, the density of the population, civilian objects – such as homes and schools, hospitals, electric power grids, and water sources – magnifies the challenges. Urban environments…

Counter-Terrorism Hangover or Legal Obligation? The Requirement to Protect Civilians In War

Blog, Op-EdBy Sahr Muhammedally March 30, 2021

By Sahr Muhammedally Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, in a letter to the mayor and council of Atlanta before he besieged the town in 1864, wrote, “war is cruelty and you cannot refine it.” As a practitioner whose work focuses on the protection of civilians, I have witnessed indiscriminate attacks on civilians, and both governments and…

Give Local Civil Society a Say in U.S. Security Assistance

Blog, Op-EdBy Daniel R. Mahanty February 9, 2021

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…

They have names: Accounting for harm to civilians in Iraq in Syria

Blog, Op-EdBy Daniel R. Mahanty February 3, 2021

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.…

Power Politics Obstructs Protection of Civilians in — and after — the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Blog, Op-EdBy Beatrice Godefroy February 2, 2021

By Beatrice Godefroy and Julien Théron Even as people in Ukraine’s Donbas region continue to suffer amid the seven-year-long conflict between government forces and Russian-backed separatists, populations elsewhere in Eastern Europe find themselves also at the center of lingering tensions between conflicting regional powers. The “flash” hostilities that broke out between Armenia and Azerbaijan in…

Toward A More Responsible US Arms Trade Policy: Recommendations for the Biden-Harris Administration

Blog, Op-EdBy Annie Shiel January 19, 2021

By Annie Shiel, Seth Binder, Jeff Abramson, William Hartung, Rachel Stohl, Diana Ohlbaum, Adam Isacson, Brittany Benowitz and Daniel R. Mahanty In recent years, U.S. arms sold and transferred abroad have been used to commit gross violations of human rights and international humanitarian law (IHL) and fueled widespread civilian harm, corruption, and humanitarian crises in countries…

Category Archives: Op-Ed