Irreversible Damage: Civilian Harm in Modern Conflict
How U.S. and Allied Forces Undermine Their Missions by Hurting Civilians—and How to Change That
United States forces and their allies abroad have underestimated the irreversible damage done to their missions when they kill or harm civilians, says a new report by combat veteran and strategist Christopher Kolenda and human rights researcher Rachel Reid. Yet military forces can make changes to dramatically reduce civilian casualties—and did so in Afghanistan—without undermining their own force protection or ceding military advantage. Tragically, this hard-won lesson is often lost, as in the disastrous U.S. airstrike on an Afghan hospital that killed 42 people in October. On June 8, the report’s authors, with former Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy, held a discussion at USIP of their findings.
Read the event coverage, Afghanistan’s Lesson: Strategic Costs of Civilian Harm.
Reid led research work for Human Rights Watch amid the Afghan war after years of reporting from the country for the BBC. Kolenda commanded airborne troops in Afghanistan and later helped shape U.S. strategy there and at the Pentagon. The authors interviewed more than 40 senior U.S. and Afghan officials as part of their study examining the complex relationships among civilian harm, force protection and U.S. strategic interests in Afghanistan. In that war, civilian harm by Afghan and international forces fueled the growth of the Taliban insurgency, and undermined the legitimacy of the international mission and Afghan government. In 2008, international forces were responsible for 39 percent of civilian fatalities. Major reforms by U.S. forces reduced that to 9 percent by 2012.
The lessons about the irreversible damage of civilian harm have not been fully understood or institutionalized. U.S. partners fighting the Taliban, ISIS, and al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula are inflicting high rates of civilian casualties with weapons and support from the United States, yet they seem no closer to success. The tragedy of the October U.S. airstrikes on the hospital in Kunduz run by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), showed that without consistent leadership attention, resources and training, hard-learned lessons can be lost relatively rapidly. In their report, published June 7 by the Open Society Foundations, the authors outline recommendations to promote civilian protection in ways that protect soldiers and advance U.S. interests. Continue the conversation on Twitter with #ProtectingCivilians.
Speakers
Michèle A. Flournoy, Moderator
Co-Founder and CEO, Center for a New American Security
Christopher Kolenda
Senior Military Fellow, King’s College, London
President and CEO, Kolenda Strategic Leadership
Rachel Reid
Advocacy Director for Middle East, North Africa, Southwest Asia, Open Society Foundations
