Civilian casualties in military operations involving major Western powers have started to attract public attention and debates. While the current ethical and legal frameworks, embodied in the Just War tradition (JWT) and International Humanitarian Law (IHL) respectively, prohibit direct attack on civilians, they permit harming civilians in indirect and proportionate attacks, so long as the attacks are considered legitimate. The emerging literature on ethics concerning civilian casualties points to the tension between the norms of non-combatant immunity and force protection and deals with...
Civilian casualties in military operations involving major Western powers have started to attract public attention and debates. While the current ethi...