Hello everyone. I haven't posted for a while, mainly because I've been completely swamped writing with creating my free online course which launches on Monday. The course is on exactly the sort of material I cover on the blog so if you're following the blog you should seriously consider signing up for the course. It's … Continue reading My Free Online Course is Ready and About to Launch!
combatants
Accounting for Death in War: Separating Fact from Fiction – Registration is now Open!
I will be teaching a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) and registration is now open! Here is the link Please sign up. I'll provide more information as the launch date nears.
Economics of Warfare – Lecture 1
This morning I gave my first lecture in my Economics of Warfare class. I plan to continue to post a lecture each week. I don't plan to write an abstract for each lecture but you can get a sense of the material covered by looking at "categories" and "tags".
Targeting Terrorists and Near Certainty
The American Civil Liberties Union had a successful FOIA request that yielded a document explaining how the Obama Administration approves actions to kill suspected terrorists. I learned about the release from this good article. What follows are just my personal angles, not a comprehensive treatment of the document. First, I don't know why these policies … Continue reading Targeting Terrorists and Near Certainty
New B’Tselem Report on Operation Protective Edge…and a Critic who Fires Blanks at B’Tselem
B'Tselem is one of the finest casualty recording organisations in the world so the recent publication of its report on Operation Protective Edge (July 8 - August 26, 2014) is an important moment for the field. The report is simultaneously very good and very brief so I urge everyone to have a look. There is a well-organised interactive … Continue reading New B’Tselem Report on Operation Protective Edge…and a Critic who Fires Blanks at B’Tselem
The New US Policy on Civilian Casualties in Military Operations
I posted recently on the expected announcement from the Obama administration about civilians killed in US air attacks. You can read a brief summary of this release here. The best in-depth analysis I've seen is this article by Jack Serle. I'm still happy with my original post now that the announcement is out . However, I wish … Continue reading The New US Policy on Civilian Casualties in Military Operations
Civilians versus Combatant Watch: Ewen MacAskill edition
Here is a decent article by Ewen MacAskill reporting on a plan by Jeremy Corbyn to apologize to the Iraqi and British people over the Iraq war if he becomes Labour leader next month. Great. Unfortunately, the article also provides a perfect example of the shoddy practice, discussed just a few weeks ago on the blog, … Continue reading Civilians versus Combatant Watch: Ewen MacAskill edition
Is Everyone a Civilian or is it just Everyone who’s not a Military-Aged Male?
I'm already organizing my "Economics of Warfare" course for 2015-16 so I had another look at this incisive 13 minutes on drones from John Oliver. The bit around minute 5:00 triggered a few bad memories that I would like to ....errr....share with my loyal readers. It shows Scott Shane of the New York Times decrying … Continue reading Is Everyone a Civilian or is it just Everyone who’s not a Military-Aged Male?