Attacks on life or legitimate military targets? Violence against infrastructure in armed conflicts

Civilians have suffered tremen­­dously in armed conflicts. However, the existing quanti­tative cross-national literature has taken a narrow view of civilian suffering as the number of civilians killed as a direct result of armed hosti­lities or one-sided violence. This narrow focus on counting the dead ignores the enormous suffering caused by the targeting of infra­structure in armed conflict. This kind of violence causes health and huma­nitarian crises at the time of the event, but even more so in its aftermath. Despite the catas­trophic conse­­quences of the targeting of infra­structure, this strategy has largely been neglected by scholars of civil war violence. The research project addresses this blind spot by investigating the causes and conse­quences of violence against infrastructure in a collaborative and inter­disciplinary manner over the next years.