New analysis released by Airwars’ project the Civilian Protection Monitor details the extent of the US walk-back on its commitments to protect civilians in war, while showing major improvements in policy and practice in the Netherlands. The United Kingdom has maintained its status as ‘Uncommitted’ to mitigating harm to civilians from its own military operations, with revelations in 2025 publicly confirming long-suspected gaps and weaknesses in the Ministry of Defense’s approach.

Analysts at the Civilian Protection Monitor (CPM) have spent months painstakingly reviewing hundreds of publicly available documents that shed light on the typically obscure topic of the measures states take to mitigate harm to civilians on the battlefield, and track and respond to harm when it does occur. In each state reviewed, the CPM team have engaged with academics, NGOs, practitioners, legal experts, as well as government and military officials to ensure the analysis reflects all available sources fairly.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified to Congress in May 2026 that “there is no country on planet Earth that takes more measures to ensure that civilian harm or civilian casualties are minimized than the United States of America.” By picking through dozens of policy documents, closely monitoring the civilian toll of every US airstrike, and investigating the impact of every cut to the Pentagon budget, this report reveals the opposite to be true. Across almost every indicator of good practice, from public reporting to tracking mechanisms to investigations, the United States has regressed since the analysis of its position in 2024.

By contrast the Netherlands has moved up in categories across the board. From establishing public reporting platforms, to initiating investigations into harm allegations, to building trusted relationships with civil society in order to develop policy frameworks, the Netherlands was the only country under review that appears to have made tangible progress toward civilian protection. As a key NATO member contributing to existential threats Russia, this progress sets an example for how states can inform their future military planning with critical reflection and acknowledgement of the harm caused by past actions.

The United Kingdom remains the weakest state, with the only revelations in 2025 appearing to confirm long-held assumptions by civilian protection experts: that the UK has no system for tracking civilian casualties, no system for investigating civilian harm, and no coherent strategy framework or set of policies that suit the demands of this task. In a tribunal decided in 2025, it was also revealed that – unlike in other countries – in the UK, a politically elected minister holds the power to reject an allegation of civilian harm, before it is published. 

Launched for the first time in 2025, the CPM is the only public resource available to those seeking to understand state positions, and measure those positions against established indicators of good practice. With an initial limited scope of the United Kingdom, the United States and the Netherlands (the self-proclaimed ‘leaders’ of the civilian protection enterprise), the CPM is now in its second year. Offered up as an interactive website, the CPM is the definitive source for those working on civilian protection. In May 2026, the CPM was referenced by the UK MoD in its own Baseline Assessment of its policies, with the CPM findings prompting recommendations for improvement in their own internal review.