English

Noun

collateral damage ‎(uncountable)

1. (military, euphemistic) Damage to civilian property or civilian casualties that are the unintended result of military operations.
   • 1999, Dennis L. Soden, The Environmental Presidency, ISBN 0791443000, page 237:

     A certain amount of collateral damage and destruction to the surrounding environment has always been viewed as a necessary but generally undesirable by-product of military conflict.

   • 2004, Alice Hills, Future War in Cities: Rethinking a Liberal Dilemma, ISBN 071465602X, page 197:

     But the most critical tension concerns the need to balance minimal own-casualties and low collateral damage with operational effectiveness.

   • 2009, Ian Henderson, The Contemporary Law of Targeting, ISBN 900417480X, page 205-206:

     And, most importantly, there may come a point when, by taking measures to improve the security of the attacking force, the increase in the expected collateral damage outweighs the anticipated military advantage.

2. Harm to innocent people that results from policy decisions.
   • 2005, Coletta Youngers & ‎Eileen Rosin, Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy, ISBN 1588262545, page 339:

     What is missing from this line of reasoning, however, is a frank assessment of the collateral damage caused by supply-side efforts and whether this harm outweighs the unproven positive impact of current programs, which is likely to be marginal at best.

   • 2009, David J. Hess, Localist Movements in a Global Economy, ISBN 0262012642, page 25:

     Neoliberals readily admit that economic liberalization causes some dislocations, but they view such collateral damage as necessary for the longer term gains of increased productivity and efficiency.

   • 2011, Krishna Pillai, Essence of a Manager, ISBN 3642175813, page 32:

     Merely the existence of collateral damage – whether in war or in a managerial situation - is symptomatic to me of misdirected power and synonymous with a failing in the exercise of power.

3. Unintended victims of an attack targeted at someone or something else.
   • 2008, Michael R. Hamblin, Advances in Photodynamic Therapy, ISBN 1596932783, page 294:

     The versatility and specificity of PDT regards dosing and delivery may provide a far superior treatment and management of infection than antibiotics and minimize the risk of developing resistance as well as collateral damage to host bacteria.

   • 2009, Herbert S. Lin, ‎Kenneth W. Dam, & ‎William A. Owens, Technology, Policy, Law, and Ethics Regarding U.S. Acquistion and use of Cyberattack Capabilities, ISBN 0309138507, page 264:

     The possibility of false claims exists with kinetic attacks as well, but claims about collateral damage from a cyberattack are likely to be even more difficult to refute.

   • 2014, Hannah Alexander, Collateral Damage, ISBN 0373446020, page 86:

     “So we're talking about collateral damage?” He hated the expression, because it meant someone took life very lightly, but wasn't that true? That was the nature of murder. "I doubt that poor nurse was the object of our killer's hatred. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time."