First Do No Harm , livre ebook

361

pages

English

Ebooks

2009

Écrit par
David N. Gibbs

Publié par
Vanderbilt University Press

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361

pages

English

Ebooks

2009

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Vanderbilt University Press

Date de parution

29 juin 2009

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780826516459

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

In First Do No Harm, David Gibbs raises basic questions about the humanitarian interventions that have played a key role in U.S. foreign policy for the past twenty years. Using a wide range of sources, including government documents, transcripts of international war crimes trials, and memoirs, Gibbs shows how these interventions often heightened violence and increased human suffering.

The book focuses on the 1991-99 breakup of Yugoslavia, which helped forge the idea that the United States and its allies could stage humanitarian interventions that would end ethnic strife. It is widely believed that NATO bombing campaigns in Bosnia and Kosovo played a vital role in stopping Serb-directed aggression, and thus resolving the conflict.

Gibbs challenges this view, offering an extended critique of Samantha Power's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide. He shows that intervention contributed to the initial breakup of Yugoslavia, and then helped spread the violence and destruction. Gibbs also explains how the motives for U.S. intervention were rooted in its struggle for continued hegemony in Europe.

First Do No Harm argues for a new, noninterventionist model for U.S. foreign policy, one that deploys nonmilitary methods for addressing ethnic violence.

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Publié par

Vanderbilt University Press

Date de parution

29 juin 2009

Nombre de lectures

EAN13

9780826516459

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

First Do No Harm

D A L M A T I A H E R Z E G O V I N A C S E A

National capital

S L O V E N I A

V O J V O D I N A

Skopje

42°

MACEDONI A

G R E E C E

A L B A N I A

R O M A N I A

K O S O V O

22°

16°

Republics and Autonomous Provinces of Yugoslavia, 1990

Priština

20°

18°

42°

44°

Belgrade

44°

22°

46°

150 km

100 mi

Titograd (later Podgorica)

100

14°

MONTENEGRO

Sarajevo

A N I J A R K

B U L G A R I A

C R O A T I A

46°

I T A L Y

H U N G A R Y

Ljubljana

A U S T R I A

14°

16°

18°

Zagreb

Novi Sad

20°

LAIA VON S

B O S N I A A N D

First Do No Harm

Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia

David N. Gibbs

Vanderbilt University Press • Nashville

    

    

his book is printed on acid-free paper made from % post-consumer recycled content. Manufactured in te United States of America

Frontispiece: Based on “he Former Yugoslavia” (map) from te United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Cartograpic Section.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gibbs, David N. First do no arm : umanitarian intervention and te destruction of Yugoslavia / David N. Gibbs. p. cm. Includes bibliograpical references and index. ISBN 8--8-- (clot : alk. paper) ISBN 8--8-- (pbk. : alk. paper) . Humanitarian intervention—Bosnia and Hercegovina. . Humanitarian intervention—Serbia—Kosovo. . Yugoslav War, –—Participation, Foreign. . Kosovo (Serbia)—History—Civil War, 8–—Participation, Foreign. . United States—Foreign relations—Yugoslavia. . Yugoslavia—Foreign relations—United States. I. Title. JZ.G  .—dc 8

For Diana and Natan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Contents

Preface

he Rise of Humanitarian Intervention US Predominance and te Logic of Interventionism Origins of te Yugoslav Conﬂict Germany Drops a Matc he War Spreads to Bosnia-Herzegovina Only te Weak Rely on Diplomacy: he Clinton Administration Faces Bosnia Kosovo and te Reaﬃrmation of American Power Conclusion

Notes Bibliograpy Index

106

141

171

205

223

309

335

Preface

his book is te product of my long-standing interest in foreign interven-tion. As I grew up during te s and s, te unfolding disaster of US intervention in Vietnam sparked my interest in tis topic. I remember well wen I eard in  te ﬁrst details of te My Lai massacre and was dis-turbed to realize tat US troops were capable of suc actions. I was similarly saken by te eﬀects of US bombing, te use of cemical weapons, and te advent of “free ﬁre” zones, among oter orrors of tat war. Wat impressed me even more was te extent to wic oﬃcial lies and deceptions elped to justify te war and to mislead te public (a point underscored by te pub-lication of tePentagon Papersin , wen I was tirteen). As a graduate student and a young professor, I pursued tese interests in extended studies of foreign interventions in te Congo Crisis of te early s, and ten in Afganistan after 8. I am tus writing from a position tat is fundamentally skeptical about te merits of intervention and, to some extent, of war more generally. I agree tat tere ave been a andful of wars tat produced positive results (and yes, US involvement in World War II was one suc example). But I would see tese “positive” cases as rare. In most instances, te legacy of military intervention as been appalling, and I ave found noting in my studies of Yugoslavia to callenge tis basic assumption. Anoter inﬂuence on tis book as been te continuation of US mili-tarism following te demise of te USSR. he basic paradox was succinctly stated by Calmers Jonson in a recent interview:

In 8, Mikail Gorbacev makes a decision. [He] could ave stopped te Germans from tearing down te Berlin Wall, but [instead] . . . e just watces tem tear it down and, at once, te wole Soviet empire starts to unravel. . . . [W ]at startled me almost more tan te Wall coming down

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