The ethics of insurgency: A critical guide to just Guerrilla warfare

Writing about war, I often mistype the word “casualties,” leaving me to wonder what is casual or causal about the harm befalling combatants and noncombatants. Similarly, as a student of armed conl ict, I often wonder what is civil about civilians or civil war. Casual suggests the chance or accidental nature of wartime injuries and deaths. Causal, on the other hand, directs our attention away from chance and toward a discernible sequence of events that result in injury or death. Civil connotes a measure of respect for normative behavior and, therefore, responsibility on the part of all participants, including soldiers, civilians, and bystanders, for the goings on in wartime.