Astor Lecture 2025: Beyond Mere Inconvenience: United States and Civilian Harm

More than 60 people attended the 2025 Astor lecture at DPIR last Friday 2 May, with Professor Helen Kinsella (University of Minnesota) delivering this year’s lecture on ‘Beyond Mere Inconvenience: United States and Civilian Harm’.

Professor Kinsella discussed the US military’s detailed Instruction on Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response (CHMR), and its implications for conceptualizing CHMR as a strategic and moral military imperative and for assessing the preeminent role of the US under both the Biden and Trump administrations. She also addressed the implications for democratic accountability and for engagement with civilian casualties and civilian harm.

The lecture was followed by a Q&A, chaired by DPIR Professors Patricia Owens and Laura Sjoberg, and discussions continued at the drinks reception.

Helen M. Kinsella is Professor of Political Science & Law at the University of Minnesota. She is also an Affiliate Faculty of Minnesota’s Department of Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the Human Rights Center, and the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change. She is a Visiting Scholar at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queens University, Belfast.