Event Date: October 23, 2025 - 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Location: FSS 4004, 120 University Private

Presented by CIPS and the International Theory Network (ITN)

Almost every major kinetic action in conflict now comes with a ‘digital ripple’: a reverberating online information landscape, emanating from the scene of an event, from individuals posting on Facebook calling for help to rescue family members under rubble, to relatives in diaspora communities posting about loved ones killed in a single strike, to images posted online by journalists capturing the vast destruction of urban warfare. Despite the wealth of information on today’s battlefield realities, states and militaries often have limited capacity or willingness to meaningfully engage with these critical sources to either acknowledge or understand civilian harm from their own actions. This has generated a disconnect between the harms of war as told by citizens and available for global audiences to engage with, and the narrative of legitimate and precise warfare, as pushed by the world’s leading militaries and arms contributing nations. This talk will present the unique position of civilian harm watchdog organisation Airwars, which confronts and engages with those responsible for civilian harm, by preserving and making sense of the chaos of information in war. This talk will propose that pushing states to acknowledge the harm from their own actions is a critical and foundational step for all efforts to improve policies on civilian harm mitigation and response, to open routes to accountability for survivors and victims, and ultimately to shift norms in today’s increasingly dangerous and militarised landscape.

Speaker:

Emily Tripp is the Executive Director of the UK-based civilian harm watchdog organisation Airwars. Before joining Airwars, Emily had a career in humanitarian response – living and working primarily in the Middle East, managing data collection and assessment teams in highly volatile contexts. After taking over the leadership of the organisation in 2022, Emily has overseen the development of Airwars into new conflicts, including a substantive and on-going effort to document civilian casualties in Gaza, and has pushed forward direct engagement with military actors responsible for civilian harm, with a primary focus on the United States. Airwars sits between the fields of investigative journalism, human rights, policy, and humanitarian response – with a mission to ensure that human lives are acknowledged, accounted for and better protected in conflict.

Chair:

Nisha Shah is an Associate Professor of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa and the Associate Director of CIPS.