28 April 2022, 2 pm | Lecture Hall I

Die Veranstaltung musste krankheitsbedingt abgesagt werden.

Ever since the large-scale atrocities committed in Rwanda, Srebrenica and various conflict zones since the 1990s, the United Nations, core member states (including Germany) as well as the European Union and NATO advanced a wide range of military, diplomatic and humanitarian approaches aimed at protecting civilians from severe harm. Yet, Russia’s war on Ukraine has once again exposed the difficulty and often incapacity of those organizations and Western states of preventing or stopping atrocities against civilians. This lecture explores the core challenges of military and civilian approaches to the Protection of Civilians (POC) and examines urgent policy options that could and should be advanced by Europeans, NATO Allies and - in the long-run - the OSCE and United Nations. It also examines Germany’s own role and its POC capacities as well as potential bilateral and multilateral policy options in the pressing context of Russia’s war against Ukraine and its civilian population.

Joachim A. Koops is Professor Security Studies and Director of the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He is also a member of the board of the Global Governance Institute in Brussels and a member of the Stimson Centre’s Advisory Expert Group on NATO and the Protection of Civilians. His research focuses on global security governance, EU, NATO, OSCE and approaches to peace and security as well as diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. From 2020-2021 Joachim led an international research and policy advice team on “Implementing the Protection of Civilians in UN Operations” funded by the German Ministry of Defence, which provided a comprehensive assessment of Germany’s and the Bundeswehr’s protection of civilians capacities. He is currently the Lead Researcher for the evaluation of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine for the Effectiveness of Peace Operations Network (EPON). Recent publications include the Oxford Handbook of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (Oxford University Press), European Approaches to Peacekeeping (Routledge) and UN, EU and NATO Approaches to the Protection of Civilians (International Peace Institute).

Introduction:

Prof. Dr. Wolfram Hilz

Director of CASSIS

Lecture:

Prof. Dr. Joachim A. Koops

Scientific Director & Chair of Security Studies, Institute of Security and Global Affairs, Leiden University