PROSECUTING WAR CRIMES

An analytical overview of obstacles facing the prosecution of war criminals, with historical background and accounts of famous and recent tribunals.

Allen opens with introductions to the American Civil War’s 1863 Lieber Code and later the Geneva Conventions as efforts to establish codified rules for war and foundations for an international system of humanitarian law. He then focuses chiefly on four significant theaters where those efforts played out or are still developing—beginning with a claim that the crucial concept of “crimes against humanity” was established during the Nuremberg trials (“the first international war crimes tribunal in history”). Allen goes on to describe judicial actions in the wake of the Srebrenica massacre of Bosnian Muslims in 1995, the more recent civil war in Syria, and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Though in all the newer cases procedural delays, ideological differences, and political maneuverings (not to mention threats of violence) figured significantly—and many of the worst offenders did or are likely to escape their just deserts—in general, the author seems optimistic that in this area, too, the moral arc will bend toward justice. He does mention trials in Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia, but in the sparse illustrations, which include one viscerally disturbing photo of Buchenwald death camp victims, the defendants, officials, and victims are all European or Middle Eastern.

Current, cogent, and as hopeful as it is horrifying.