Social Science Research Council

I am writing this review during the Israeli attacks on Gaza of December 2008/January 2009, a war in which civilians are being used as punch-balls in the propaganda war, as surely as they are victims of the physical one. Both sides claim their actions have the purpose of protecting civilians. Both disclaim responsibility [...]

In 2000, an interviewer brought me a data form in the Eastern DR Congo reporting that two children had died of fear during an attack. I was so incapable of imagining this, that I had the interviewer take me back to the household where this had been reported. They had three huts all [...]

The killing of civilians is nothing new, writes Hugo Slim. A historic and global phenomenon, the killing of civilians does however seem more present than ever, with round the clock news reporting of the horrors civilians endure. Political and public outcry is growing into a steady roar. Just last month, President Karzai [...]

This blog hosts occasional debates on significant books, relevant to Darfur and the wider questions that it raises. Killing Civilians: Method, Madness and Morality in War, by Hugo Slim, is one such book: it raises a series of profound questions about how and why civilians are killed in war—and how and why they are not [...]