Protecting Soldiers or Civilians? Western Ways of War Public Event. 27 November 2018, Vortragssaal Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg

Armed con­flict often poses a dilem­ma: should sol­diers pri­ma­ri­ly defend them­sel­ves or the local civilian
popu­la­ti­on? A focus on force pro­tec­tion makes it dif­fi­cult for sol­diers to defend civi­li­ans from insur­gent or
cri­mi­nal vio­lence, and may also lead the mili­ta­ry to cau­se civi­li­an casu­al­ties. Prio­ri­tiz­ing civi­li­an pro­tec­tion and
thus accep­ting hig­her own risks clas­hes with the aver­si­on of demo­cra­ci­es against casu­al­ties among their own
citi­zens. Dra­wing on insight from poli­ti­cal sci­ence, law, mili­ta­ry socio­lo­gy, and poli­ti­cal phi­lo­so­phy, the
par­ti­ci­pan­ts to this event dis­cuss the prac­ti­ces, cau­ses, and con­se­quen­ces of risk manage­ment in
con­tem­po­ra­ry mili­ta­ry missions.

Force Pro­tec­tion vs. Civi­li­an Protection