The international committee of the red cross: A neutral humanitarian actor

The International Committee of the Red Cross: A Neutral Humanitarian Actor

Volumn , Issue , 2007, Pages 1-122

  Forsythe, David P ^a   Rieffer Flanagan, Barbara Ann J ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN   (United States)

^b CENTRAL WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84909019332     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203480212     Document Type: Book

References (20)

1. Best, Geoffrey. 1994. War and Law Since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press. A highly readable overview of the modern attempt to impose a humanitarian legal order on war.
2. Blaudendistel, Ranier. 2006. Between Bombs and Good Intentions: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936. New York: Berghahn Books. An important book based on much archival research showing how in the 1930s the conservative ICRC tilted toward the Italian fascists at the expense of war victims in Ethiopia.
3. Bugnion, Francois. 2003. The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Protection of War Victims. London: Macmillan. A condensation of the much longer French version, this book by a recently retired ICRC official presents an authoritative overview of efforts by the ICRC over time to develop and implement international humanitarian law in armed conflict. Work with political prisoners is excluded.
4. Danner, Mark. 2004. Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terrorism. New York: New York Review of Books. An American journalist shows clearly how the George W. Bush administration tried to erase the international legal framework for dealing with enemy prisoners, so as to allow abusive interrogation. Some material relates to the ICRC and international humanitarian law.
5. Delorenzi, Simone. 1999. ICRC Policy since the End of the Cold War. Geneva, Switzerland: ICRC. A brief monograph, approved by the ICRC, charting various (slight) changes in ICRC policies after the Cold War.
6. Durand, André. 1981. The International Committee of the Red Cross. Geneva, Switzerland: ICRC. A short and official overview of the ICRC, glossing over many controversies.
7. Favez, Jean-Claude. 1999. The Red Cross and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An important book showing how the ICRC failed to pursue not only certain public statements, but more importantly dynamic discreet diplomacy on behalf of German Holocaust victims. The Swiss government, and indeed certain ICRC leaders, pursued the path of appeasing the Nazis, to guarantee the independence and other interests of Switzerland. ICRC independence, neutrality, and impartiality sometimes came second to Swiss nationalism.
8. Forsythe, David P. 2005. The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An overview of the ICRC, stressing the growing professionalism of the organization. Original information on the policy-making process of the organization.
9. Forsythe, David P. 1977. Humanitarian Politics: The International Committee of the Red Cross. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. The first analytical overview of the organization by an independent author, concentrating on the policies and policy-making of the ICRC rather than international humanitarian law.
10. Greenbert, Karen and Dratel, Joshua, eds. 2005. The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A exhaustive collection of documents, including material related to the ICRC, showing how the United States prepared for, and then implemented, the policy of abuse of prisoners supposedly related to the US "war on terrorism." Some information on the ICRC.
11. Hoffman, Peter J. and Weiss, Thomas G. 2006. Sword and Salve: Confronting New Wars and Humanitarian Crises. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield. This book traces the evolution of the international humanitarian system from its inception with the ICRC through the contemporary challenges of "new wars" and "new humanitarianisms."
12. Hutchinson, John. 1996. Champions of Charity: War and the Rise of the Red Cross. Boulder, Colo.: Westview. The late and acerbic Canadian historian takes a critical look at the Red Cross Movement. A good counterpoint to the large number of fawning histories produced by uncritical authors, and one which is especially keen on gender biases.
13. Ignatieff, Michael. 1999. The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience. London: Vintage. A Canadian author stresses the importance of the notion of military honor for the proper functioning of international humanitarian law. He presents much information on the ICRC in the Balkans in the 1990s, in the context of the absence of precisely that military honor on the part of most Balkan fighting forces.
14. Junod, Marcel. (1982) Warrior Without Weapons. Geneva, Switzerland: ICRC. The personal memoir of an important ICRC delegate who was active in Ethiopia, Spain, and World War II. See also Blaudendistel (above) for a rather critical view of this delegate.
15. Minear, Larry. 2002. The Humanitarian Enterprise: Dilemmas and Discoveries. Bloomfield, Conn.: Kumarian. An overview of international humanitarianism, with some material on the ICRC.
16. Minear, Larry and Weiss, Thomas G. 1995. Mercy Under Fire: War and the Global Humanitarian Community. Boulder, Colo.: Westview. An analytical analysis of international humanitarianism in conflict situations, comparing the ICRC with other humanitarian actors.
17. Moorehead, Caroline. 1999. Dunant's Dream: War, Switzerland and the History of the Red Cross. New York: HarperCollins. A British journalist presents an entertaining overview of the ICRC, the RC Movement, and Switzerland. Extensive research and interviewing leads to a compelling and sometime critical view of her subjects.
18. Natsios, Andrew. 1997. U.S. Foreign Policy and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Humanitarian Relief in Complex Emergencies. Greenwood, Conn.: Praeger. A former service NGO and US governmental official shows how humanitarian actors exist in a highly politicized world of states and non-state actors. He presents a mostly favorable view of the ICRC compared to the UNHCR, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme among others.
19. Neff, Stephen C. 2005. War and the Law of Nations: A General History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. A good overview of both jus ad bellum and jus in bello, or the law on aggression and self-defense, and international humanitarian law. Some information on the ICRC, and many clever analyses.
20. Rochat, André. 2005. L'Homme à la Croix. Vevey, Switzerland: Editions de l'Aire. Highly uneven personal memoir of an ICRC delegate who achieved a number of good things in the Yemen in the 1960s, but many fewer good things when afterwards he became ICRC Delegate General for the Middle East. Not reliable on many asserted facts.