Customer Reviews

The New Killing Fields: Massacre and the Politics of Intervention

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"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.

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.

A book that sheds light on a ghastly topic like genocide. There is something for everyone in this book. It talks of the tragic killings in Cambodia, East Timor, the former Yugoslavia, and Rwanda. As with any book written by 14 different authors, some of the writers focus on the academic portion of genocide while the journalists detail the story of mass killings. However, some of these stories dealt with the same story from a slightly different perspective, so in the case of East Timor, there are three very similar stories. Some of the writers are better than others at expressing their opinion and so the reader might have to trudge across some not so interesting intrepretations.

Some of the suggestions the authors detail for stopping genocide risk the West and especially the United States into becoming trustees to a failed genocidal state. A modern day colony by another name. Others suggest on how to interpret whether state murder is genocide as "When I see it, I will know it". Clearly the authors had difficulty with this subject. As the world becomes smaller, nations will learn sooner the defects of fellow regimes.

This is must-read. It is horrific in details but very, very important.