Author Description

Civilian Protection Is Often Seen As An External Restraint On Wartime Violence, As Something That Can Limit The Death And Destruction Inflicted Upon The Civilian Population. Weaponizing Civilian Protection This View, Showing How Militaries Have Used It To Re-calibrate Their Violence To Make It More Effective And To Mitigate The Harm Caused To Civilians To Make It Appear More Legitimate. Focusing On The Recent Conflict In Afghanistan, The Book Traces How Coalition Officials Tried To Re-imagine Civilian Casualties As A Martial Concern Rather Than A Humanitarian Consideration - As A Strategic Problem That Could Imperil The Mission. Drawing On Interviews With Coalition Officials, And Numerous Declassified Documents, It Examines The Restrictions Coalition Officials Imposed On Combat Operations To Minimize Civilian Casualties, And The Post-incident Responses That Officials Used To Rationalize These Deaths, Including Counting The Casualties And Issuing Condolence Payments To The Victims. Despite Claiming To Prioritise Civilian Protection, It Shows How These Measures Worked To Devalue And Dehumanize Afghan Civilians, Leaving Their Lives Profoundly Losable, And Their Deaths Eminently Ungrievable Within The Prevailing Normative Framework. Moreover, The Book Shows That These Enhanced Protections Are More Fragile Than They Might Appear, With Commanders Able To Relax These Restrictions - Or Remove Them Entirely - In Conflicts Where Protecting Civilians Is Not Considered Critical To Mission Success