We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
The humanitarian organizations have not emerged unscathed from the [Balkan] conflict in which so many men, women and children have perished. Is there still any point in trying to mitigate man-made chaos by humanitarian aid? No idle question, for former Yugoslavia provides an especially edifying and indeed exemplary instance of the juxtaposition of barbarous conduct on the one hand, bravery and useless heroism on the other. In these conditions humanitarian aid has to contend with the most abject political conduct and the inexhaustible indifference of governments.
Mercier, Crimes sans Chatîment, 1It hardly seemed possible that the end of the Cold War would usher in such humanitarian catastrophes. Optimism, however, was to meet a cruel fate in the wake of the collapse of European communism and the implosion of the Soviet Union. President George H. W. Bush went to the United Nations General Assembly in the fall of 1991 and proclaimed that a New World Order had arrived. The trigger was not just the collapse of Soviet-led communism. There was also the liberation of Kuwait from Iraqi control earlier that year, and then shortly thereafter the UN Security Council characterized the ramifications of domestic repression by Saddam Hussein as a threat to international peace and security. All of this made western triumphalism, centered on human dignity, seem credible.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
