War Crimes, Genocide, and Justice: A Global History - Hardcover

Crowe, D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0230622240 ISBN 13: 9780230622241

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Synopsis

In this sweeping, definitive work, leading human rights scholar David M. Crowe offers an unflinching look at the long and troubled history of genocide and war crimes. From atrocities in the ancient world to more recent horrors in Nazi Germany, Cambodia, and Rwanda, Crowe reveals not only the disturbing consistency they have shown over time, but also the often heroic efforts that nations and individuals have made to break seemingly intractable patterns of violence and retribution-in particular, the struggle to create a universally accepted body of international humanitarian law. He traces the emergence of the idea of 'just war,' early laws of war, the first Geneva Conventions, the Hague peace conferences, and the efforts following World Wars I and II to bring to justice those who violated international law. He also provides incisive accounts of some of the darkest episodes in recent world history, covering violations of human rights law in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Cambodia, Guatemala, the Iran-Iraq war, Korea, Tibet, and many other contexts. With valuable insights into some of the most vexing issues of today-including controversial US efforts to bring alleged terrorists to justice at Guantánamo Bay, and the challenges facing the International Criminal Court-this is an essential work for understanding humankind's long and often troubled history.

About this title

Review:

'Winston Churchill called genocide the crime of crimes and my experience as a witness to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 confirms that definition. Crowe has done an exceptional job of research and writing of the crime of genocide and war crimes, throughout history, with the skill of the academic, the experience of the practitioner, but in the language of the layman. I strongly recommend this book to the academic, the lawyer, the student, the activist and the citizen who must join together to eradicate these crimes that have plagued humanity since antiquity. This book will contribute to the campaign of finally banishing war crimes and genocide to the dustbin of history.' - Senator Roméo Dallaire

'Like no other author, David M. Crowe provides an encyclopedic summation both of humanity's propensity for atrocious evil and of its halting and inadequate search for accountability after the fact - a dramatic story that, as he indicates, is far from over in our own day.' - Samuel Moyn, Author of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History

'A stomach-churning account of humanity's insatiable blood-lust" - Times Higher Education

Book Description:

An eye-opening history of war crimes and genocide by one of the world's leading historians of human rights

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0230622240
• ISBN 13: 9780230622241
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 509