{"podcast":{"title":"ICRC Humanitarian Law and Policy Blog","slug":"icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756","podcast_index_feed_id":4241756,"rss_url":"https://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:981779980/sounds.rss","website_url":"https://blogs.icrc.org/humnlaw-and-policy/","image_url":"https://i1.sndcdn.com/avatars-Y9GsXTblLaMVG1iA-x94rVg-original.jpg","author":"ICRC Law and Policy","episode_count":305,"summary":"The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICR…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-03T16:25:14.156278+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756"},"episode":{"title":"Before the fighting begins: IHL and the location of military objectives","slug":"before-the-fighting-begins-ihl-and-the-location-of-military-objectives","published_at":"2026-08-27T07:01:01+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756/before-the-fighting-begins-ihl-and-the-location-of-military-objectives","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756","url":"https://soundcloud.com/icrc-lawandpolicy-blog/before-the-fighting-begins-ihl","audio_url":"https://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/2388547593-icrc-lawandpolicy-blog-before-the-fighting-begins-ihl.mp3","summary":"International humanitarian law (IHL) is primarily associated with the conduct of hostilities and the protection of people during armed conflict. Yet some of the decisions that determine civilian risk in a future conflict are made long before fighting begins, including where states choose to locate military infrastructure. This raises an important question: what role does IHL play in peacetime decisions that may shape the humanitarian consequences of a future war? In this post, Gabija Grigaitė examines whether IHL requires states to consider civilian protection when deciding where to locate new military objectives. Using Lithuania’s planned brigade-level military training area as a case study, she argues that the principle of precaution can require measures to be taken in peacetime to reduce the risk of disproportionate civilian harm in a future conflict. The post considers what this preventive dimension of IHL means for decisions about locating military objectives near densely populated areas and critical civilian infrastructure.","meta_description":"International humanitarian law (IHL) is primarily associated with the conduct of hostilities and the protection of people during armed conflict. Yet some…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":717,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756/episodes/before-the-fighting-begins-ihl-and-the-location-of-military-objectives/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/icrc-humanitarian-law-and-policy-blog-4241756/before-the-fighting-begins-ihl-and-the-location-of-military-objectives.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}