The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention

Rating:
Summary: Essays on Genocide
Review: "The New Killing Fields" is not straight reporting, but rather a collection of essays by various writers concerning modern genocide, particularly in Yugoslavia, Rwanda and East Timor. The writers of the essays for the most part assume some level of knowledge about each war zone on the part of the reader, and the book is aimed more toward opinion leaders than the general public.

The essays themselves are an attempt by the various writers to help those of us in the West come to grips with the causes of genocide and our obligation to attempt to stop it. The argument is made that in Yugoslavia, for example, even the most minimal military intervention could have stopped the slaughter years earlier and that the Bosnian Serb forces in particular were nothing more than paper tigers. The "Powell Docterine" that has repeatedly led to a reluctance by the U.S. to use its military comes under particular criticism. The authors also tailor their remarks to the post-September 11th political realities.

Overall, a strong collectiion of political essays aimed at opinion leaders.

Rating:
Summary: Issues of justice and responsibility
Review: Essays written by eyewitnesses to foreign terror are packed into The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention, a powerful, revealing title, which considers massacre, and the politics involved in its intervention around the world. Lessons gained from Asian and European massacre experiences, issues of justice and responsibility, and those involved in military and social issues on all sides are revealed in a set of striking scholarly analyses.