Civilians have long developed strategies to protect themselves and others in the face of violence. Over the past two decades, research on civilian self-protection (CSP) has documented these practices across diverse conflict settings, challenging the assumption that protection is primarily delivered by states or international actors. Today, this insight has taken on renewed urgency. Civilian casualties, displacement, and violations of international humanitarian law have surged, while international assistance has become increasingly fragmented and unreliable. In this context, civilian self-protection is not peripheral but central to how civilians navigate insecurity and survive.

In this talk, I examine what the current moment reveals about CSP and its limits. Drawing on my recent work on civilian protective agency, the risks of international engagement, and the role of digital technologies, I synthesize key insights from the CSP literature and assess why international efforts to recognize or support these practices—often framed through the language of localization—have remained partial, contested, and fraught with risk. I then analyze how information and communication technologies are reshaping civilian agency by amplifying coordination and visibility while simultaneously producing new forms of exposure and vulnerability. Taken together, the talk asks how civilian self-protection reshapes conflict dynamics, redistributes risk, and complicates prevailing assumptions about responsibility, authority, and protection itself.

About the speaker

Emily Paddon Rhoads is Associate Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College, where she teaches courses in international relations, comparative politics, and peace and conflict studies. Her research examines how protection, legitimacy, and trust are constructed when formal institutions are strained or contested, and how communities, local and global, organize safety and cooperation under conditions of violence, crisis, and political fragmentation.

Host

The Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, part of the Einaudi Center for International Studies

Co-sponsor

The Gender and Security Sector Lab

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This year we’re hosting informal campus discussions on many Tuesday afternoons. This week’s topic:

In the United States and around the world, strict immigration enforcement and violence are being wielded as political tools. Recent U.S. actions include surveillance of communities, indiscriminate detainment, and violence against protestors. Despite being framed as necessary for the safety of citizens, these tactics are rooted in histories of slavery, the prison industrial complex, and xenophobia.

Does this type of enforcement infringe on rights? How can we understand current events through the lens of global and historical contexts? Do present-day immigration policies make communities safer?

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Shannon Gleeson (Migrations) | Industrial and Labor RelationsTristan Ivory (EAP, IAD) | International and Comparative LaborJaclyn Kelley-Widmer | LawNatasha Raheja (SAP) | AnthropologyIan Kysel | Law

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