Armed Conflict Foreign Relations & International Law

The Lawfare Podcast: Protecting Civilians in Gaza and Beyond with Marc Garlasco and Emily Tripp

Tyler McBrien, Marc Garlasco, Emily Tripp, Jen Patja
Thursday, January 18, 2024, 8:00 AM
What is the state of civilian harm across the globe?

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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Last month, the Department of Defense released its first-ever policy on civilian harm reduction. But as Marc Garlasco recently wrote in Lawfare, “[T]he policy comes at an awkward time … The U.S. military has issued guidance on how to protect civilians during operations just as its close ally Israel has reportedly killed thousands of Palestinians with American bombs.” 

And yet, many aspects of the new policy are nothing short of groundbreaking.  

Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sat down with Marc, a former targeting professional and war crimes investigator and current military advisor at PAX, as well as Emily Tripp, the Director of Airwars, a transparency watchdog NGO which tracks, assesses, archives, and investigates civilian harm claims in conflict-affected nations. They discussed the state of civilian harm worldwide; the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Pentagon’s new policy; and recent efforts to get U.S. allies and partners to buy in. 


Tyler McBrien is the managing editor of Lawfare. He previously worked as an editor with the Council on Foreign Relations and a Princeton in Africa Fellow with Equal Education in South Africa, and holds an MA in international relations from the University of Chicago.
Marc Garlasco is the military advisor at PAX and a consultant for the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan. He is also a trainer at the Institute for International Criminal Investigations where he is currently training Ukrainian war crimes teams.
Emily Tripp is the Director of Airwars. Her previous experience includes working in humanitarian aid delivery in the Middle East,
Jen Patja is the editor and producer of The Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.

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