Local Government, Passive Defense and Aerial Bombardment in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War, 1936–9

The bombardment of civilians from the air was a regular feature of the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. It is estimated some 15,000 Spaniards died as a result of air bombings during the Civil War, most civilians, and 11,000 were victims of bombing from the Francoist side that rebelled against the Republican government, supported by German and Italian aviation that joined the rebellion against the Republic. In Catalonia alone, some 1062 municipalities experienced aerial bombardments by the Francoist side of the civil war. In cities across Spain, municipal and regional authorities developed detailed plans for civilian defense in response to these air campaigns. In Barcelona, the municipality created the Junta Local de Defensa Passiva de Barcelona, to build bomb shelters, warn the public of bombings, and educate them on how to protect themselves against aerial bombardment. They mobilized civilians around the concept of ‘passive defense.’ This proactive response by civilians and local government to what they recognized as a war targeting them is an important and under-studied aspect of the Spanish Civil War.

The Precariousness of Protection: Civilian Defense Groups Countering Boko Haram in Northeastern Nigeria

For all the academic and policy interest in Nigeria’s Boko Haram insurgency, the coping strategies of civilians who survive amid everyday violence have received relatively little attention. Focusing on the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a pro-government militia fighting Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria, Agbiboa explores how and why the group emerged, the nature of its relationship with the state and local communities, and how counterinsurgent vigilantism affects the prospects for peace. A focus on vigilantes and civil militias vis-à-vis the state points to the vital role of civil-military cooperation for effective counterinsurgency campaigns and for reducing state violence against civilians. At the same time, it underscores the precariousness of protection both in terms of increasing the targeting of civilians by vengeful insurgents as well as the tendency for civilian defense groups to “turn bad” and become threats to the communities they were expected to protect.

Actionable, Revised (v.3), and Amplified American Burn Association Triage Tables for Mass Casualties: A Civilian Defense Guideline

Burn care remains among the most complex of the time-sensitive treatment interventions in medicine today. An enormous quantity of specialized resources are required to support the critical and complex modalities needed to meet the conventional standard of care for each patient with a critical burn injury. Because of these dependencies, a sudden surge of patients with critical burn injuries requiring immediate and prolonged care following a burn mass casualty incident (BMCI) will place immense stress on healthcare system assets, including supplies, space, and an experienced workforce (staff). Therefore, careful planning to maximize the efficient mobilization and rational use of burn care resources is essential to limit morbidity and mortality following a BMCI. The U.S. burn care profession is represented by the American Burn Association (ABA). This paper has been written by clinical experts and led by the ABA to provide further clarity regarding the capacity of the American healthcare system to absorb a surge of burn-injured patients. Furthermore, this paper intends to offer responders and clinicians evidence-based tools to guide their response and care efforts to maximize burn care capabilities based on realistic assumptions when confronted with a BMCI. This effort also aims to align recommendations in part with those of the Committee on Crisis Standards of Care for the Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Sciences. Their publication guided the work in this report, identified here as “conventional, contingency, and crisis standards of care.” This paper also includes an update to the burn Triage Tables- Seriously Resource-Strained Situations (v.2).

Civilians in the Line of Fire

The siege of Sevastopol and the two most famous battles of the Crimean War (Battle of Balaklava and Battle of Inkerman) occurred in October and November of 1854. This chapter shows how the siege and the battles impacted the civilian population living in or near the war zone. It begins with discussion of military strategy, the defense of Sevastopol and scuttling of the Black Sea Fleet. It offers a reassessment of Menshikov. Most of the chapter describes the civilian experience, including civilian construction of parapets in Sevastopol, and the failed civilian defense of Balaklava (which occurred weeks before the famous battle by the same name), as well as the devastation of civilians and landscapes near the battle zone.