Please note: This is an online event.

Please join us for the final session for 2021 of the Readings / Australian Red Cross book club on the laws and impact of war.

In this session we will be joined by Dr Samantha Crompvoets to discuss her book, Blood Lust, Trust & Blame.

Blood Lust, Trust & Blame has been released against the backdrop of concerning findings made by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force in the Afghanistan Inquiry Report, including the conclusion that credible information exists that war crimes were committed. In addition to recommending criminal investigations, the Report made a range of recommendations in relation to what it termed ‘strategic, operational, organisational and cultural issues’, which it found had contributed to the creation of an environment that allowed misconduct to take place and to go undetected. In this context, Crompvoets explores the concept of ‘culture’ and explains how it can obscure problems and act as a barrier to the taking of responsibility and the implementation of meaningful change. To learn from the Australian Defence Force’s efforts to understand what happened in Afghanistan and to prevent it from happening again, she argues that we must ask different questions and stop relying so heavily on ‘culture’.

Dr Crompvoets is a sociologist with extensive experience conducting research into military cohorts, including for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Department of Defence. She has led projects focused on improving workplace climate and organisational culture across the defence and security sector, as well as for the university sector and elite sporting clubs. She is a member of the NATO SAS-144 panel developing the Code of Best Practice for Conducting Survey Research in a Military Context, and serves as Chair of the Australian Centre for Excellence in Post-Traumatic Stress. Dr Crompvoets also sits on a number of advisory boards across the defence and security sector.

You do not need to have read the book to enjoy this event! This event is for anyone interested in how countries like Australia can promote better accountability for human rights abuses.

The ‘laws and impact of war’ book club is a partnership between Readings and the Victorian International Humanitarian Law Advisory Committee of the Australian Red Cross.

International humanitarian law (IHL), also known as the laws of war, is the body of law that applies during war to protect those who are not, or who are no longer participating in hostilities, and that seeks to limit the means and methods of warfare. Find out more by visiting the website of Australian Red Cross.

This event is free to attend but bookings are essential.

Please book here.

How to ‘attend’ a virtual event at Readings

This event commences online at 7pm using the video conferencing platform Zoom.

To book for this event, you must provide your email address.

To ensure the Zoom event stays private, participants will be emailed a unique zoom link and a password 30 minutes before the event begins on the day of the event. Please check your email.

All bookings for online events will be closed one hour before the event begins.

You do not need to have a Zoom account to join a meeting, but mobile users will need to download the Zoom app for their device. Desktop and laptop users can either download the Zoom application or access the event via their web browser.