“As cities continue to grow faster than ever before and as wars more frequently take place in
urban settings, experts have called on militaries to improve how they engage and defeat their enemies. Alongside this shift, an equal emphasis and innovative thinking needs to promote the ability of commanders to gather and analyse large amounts of information about civilian populations and the cities they live in. This is both a military imperative and a vital part of a military’s constant care and precautionary measures obligations under IHL. Some militaries are doing this better than others, and it is impossible to expect a commander to have access to the infinite amount of data that a city contains. There remains considerable room, however, for improving the ways warring parties prepare themselves to spare civilians the harms of war in urban environment where information is constantly in flux and, on top of that, where a high operational tempo means that commanders may often find it difficult to overcome information gaps that emerge during the heat of battle.”
Upcoming Blog Posts Include:
- Sieges, Evacuations and Urban Warfare: Thoughts from the Transatlantic Workshop on International Law and Armed Conflict, Laurie Blank (Clinical Professor of Law, Director of the Center for International and Comparative Law and Director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law) – EJIL Talk!
- Better Safe than Sorry: Transferring Detainees Safely to Coalition Partners, Tilman Rodenhauser (Legal Advisor, ICRC) – Lawfare
- Medical Care in Armed Conflict, Marco Sassoli (Director of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and Professor of International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva) – Humanitarian Law & Policy Blog
- And more….!
For past Transatlantic Workshop Series