Military, War, and Peace Commons^™

Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.

Stopping The Killing And/Or Stopping Human Rights Violations, Edward Friedman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The relationship between promoting human rights and stopping wars can be perplexing. The 19th century origins of the Geneva Convention and the International Commissions of the Red Cross (ICRC) are warnings about the moral danger, ambiguities, or tensions of bringing war within the arena of human rights considerations. Human rights and war can be a toxic cocktail. One should not want to make war more likely or legitimate or deadly by seeming to say that the killing machine on one side or the other is acting humanely, as if that makes war okay. War is hell.

International Justice And International Politics: Intertwined Paths, David Penna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

International Justice in Rwanda and the Balkans: Virtual Trials and the Struggle for State Cooperation. By Victor Peskin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 272 pp.

and

Building the International Criminal Court. By Benjamin N. Schiff. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 304 pp.

and

The Tokyo War Crimes Trial: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II. By Yuma Totani. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center / Harvard University Press, 2008. 335 pp.

The Limits Of International Humanitarian Law, Melissa Eli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The goal of international humanitarian law is to humanize war in an effort to minimize human suffering and the long-term negative consequences of war. However, despite the adoption by most countries of the Geneva Conventions and other relevant agreements, crimes of war occur in every conflict around the world on a regular basis. Additionally, as the form of warfare changes, so does the implementation and consequences of various war crimes. Genocide, systematic rape, and the use of child soldiers are three of the most significant war crimes facing sub-Saharan Africa today. Each has consequences so severe that specific international laws …

Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

American GIs who liberated Dachau from the Nazis in April 1945 exist in our collective memory as iconic representations of the American soldier-hero: competent and capable, disciplined, principled and fundamentally good. From their collective example, we expect American soldiers to reveal, report, and excoriate war crimes. This makes it difficult to acknowledge that Americans may also commit war crimes—and on a regular basis.

Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In a scene from the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters, the haughty and cantankerous character Frederick (Max von Sydow) is telling his girlfriend (Barbara Hershey) how he spent the evening flipping through channels on television. Ever the arrogant social critic, Frederick remarks,

You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips. And more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question: “How could it possibly happen?” is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is: “Why doesn't it happen …

Making Sense Of A Senseless War, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

A Dirty War in West Africa: The RUF and the Destruction of Sierra Leone by Lansana Gberie. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005.

and

Young Soldiers: Why They Choose to Fight by Rachel Brett and Irma Specht. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005.

Gabriel H. Teninbaum On The Witnesses: War Crimes And The Promise Of Justice In The Hague By Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 Pp., Gabriel H. Teninbaum Esq.

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in The Hague by Eric Stover. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005. 230 pp.

Politics And International Justice In A World Of States, J. Peter Pham

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

War Crimes and Realpolitik: International Justice from World War I to the 21st Century by Jackson Nyamuya Maogoto. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004. 267 pp.