text: Stability Tasks in Military Operations
  Civilian Vulnerabilities
  1-50. Civilian vulnerabilities come from many sources, including individual and community factors,
  environmental factors, and unavailability of services such as healthcare and emergency food distribution.
  For example, ethnic or sectarian violence may target certain groups within a population, rendering those
  more vulnerable than others. Civilians near military targets may be more vulnerable to collateral damage,
  and dislocated civilians who flee their homes may be more vulnerable to disease, starvation, and crime.
  Some groups may be vulnerable in certain contexts, including women, children, or the elderly, infirm, and
  disabled. Stability partners can mitigate vulnerabilities in many ways, including assistance and security.
  Threats to Civilians
  1-51. Threats consist of individuals or groups with the capability, intent, and opportunity to harm civilians.
  Specific threats vary in terms of their dimensions, type, and perpetrators’ objectives. The most important
  aspect of the threat is the perpetrators’ motivation or strategic logic behind the violence. If the violence is
  intrinsic to the goals or ideology of the perpetrator (such as cases of sectarian violence, ethnic cleansing, or
  genocide), the perpetrator may view the civilian population as a threat, and may prove difficult to deter.
  Similarly, when violence against civilians is intrinsic to a group’s existence, such as a group that survives
  from forced recruitment and pillage, it can be difficult to deter the perpetrators. When violence is
  instrumental to a group’s goals, such as some cases of terrorism or a brutal counterinsurgency campaign,
  perpetrators may attack civilians as a means to achieve some other objective. In such cases, perpetrators
  may be deterred or persuaded to use other methods. Their motivations may change over time and may
  overlap.
  Five Guidelines for Protection of Civilians
  1-52. Five overarching guidelines assist Army units with protection of civilians during operations. (See
  figure 1-1.) Leaders ensure Army forces do not neglect any of the guidelines as doing so increases the
  possibility that civilians will suffer unnecessary harm. These guidelines are not prioritized. However, their
  sequence suggests that Army units should understand the circumstances in which they will operate,
  establish their goals, conduct operations to achieve their goals, develop synergy with other actors, and
  shape the surrounding environment to enable success.
  Figure 1-1. Five guidelines for protection of civilians