Preparing for War: The Making of the 1949 Geneva Conventions - 9780198912613

Oxford University Press

Preparing for War: The Making of the 1949 Geneva ConventionsAuthor(s): Boyd van Dijk\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: Oxford University Press, United Kingdom\nImprint: Oxford University Press\nISBN-13: 9780198912613, 978-0198912613\nSynopsis\nThe 1949 Geneva Conventions are the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated. To this day they continue to shape contemporary debates about regulating warfare, but their history is often misunderstood.\n\nFor most observers, the drafters behind these treaties were primarily motivated by liberal humanitarian principles and the shock of the atrocities of the Second World War. This book tells a different story, showing how the final text of the Conventions, far from being an unabashedly liberal blueprint, was the outcome of a series of political struggles among the drafters. It also concerned a great deal more than simply recognizing the shortcomings of international law revealed by the experience of war.\n\nTo understand the politics .