abstract
- 2025 marked 10 years since International Studies Review (ISR) published ¿Understanding why and how Civilians Resort to Self-protection in Armed Conflict.¿ This article situated civilian self-protection in the civilian protection regime. It demonstrated how civilians use self-protection strategies and how these strategies can undermine civilian protection. The article also sought to foster theory building and comparative analyses by advancing a typology of civilian self-protection, which is based on actions taken in intra and interstate conflicts. One of the article¿s aims was to elevate civilian agency in discussions of civilian protection in armed conflict. Since then, the study of civilian self-protection (CSP) has grown enormously. What have we learned from this new scholarship about the role civilians play in their own protection? What progress has been made in theory building? What do we still need to study? This forum seeks to return to ISR a conversation among CSP scholars about the state of the field in the last decade and contemplate its future trajectory. The contributions in this forum interrogate a gamut of newer issues pertaining to CSP that convey the concept¿s utility for theoretical, methodological, and policy-based discussions. In doing so, they enhance our understandings of civilian experiences and how their protections can be improved. These insights are particularly important given the scale of civilian suffering today amid an unprecedented number of conflicts and violent encounters.