The Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue's (HD Centre's) recent publication "Interpreting Violence: Anti-civilian thinking and practice and how to argue against it more effectively" is a short guide intended "to help anyone concerned with the protection of civilians to think through the anti-civilian ideologies and methods being used in a war so that they can better recognize them and negotiate against them more effectively to limit violence against civilians." Produced with the support of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), this booklet concentrates on the perspective of the perpetrators of civilian suffering, and examines why they use civilian suffering as an aim and method of war and how they mobilise others to do so. It tries to interpret the motives, interests, and social conditioning of the perpetrators of violence against civilians.

The contents include:

1. Introduction
2. What is the civilian idea in war?
3. How is civilian suffering used as political strategy?
4. Why do people decide to hurt civilians?
5. What makes an anti-civilian movement?
6. How to challenge anti-civilian thinking and practice?
7. How to shape a pro-civilian dialogue
8. Final thoughts
9. Further reading from HD Centre