The Human Factor: The Enduring Relevance of Protecting Civilians in Future Wars
Sahr Muhammedally, Daniel Mahanty
The U.S. military has shifted from a counterinsurgency “population-centric” approach to an enemy-centric one, focused on destroying an enemy through decisive victory. And yet it should be careful not to cast aside measures to protect civilians as a vestige of the counterinsurgency era. In the future, wars are likely to be fought in urban areas, thus making the protection of civilians more relevant than ever. The U.S. military and its allies should take steps now to adapt planning, training, tactics, and tools in order to better protect civilians in scenarios in which they may find themselves fighting in densely populated areas.
Daily images coming out of Ukraine of civilian deaths and displacement and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, after a decade of similar scenes emerging from Syria and Iraq, make it hard to fathom that the future could hold even larger and deadlier conflicts. And yet, a war involving the United States and its allies against Russia over the Baltic states, or against China over Taiwan, could bring about a level of devastation not seen since World War II, even without the use of nuclear weapons.1
https://tnsr.org/2022/06/the-human-factor-the-enduring-relevance-of-protecting-civilians-in-future-wars/
