Mass Atrocity Crimes: Preventing Future Outrages »

Robert I. Rotberg is director of the Program on Intrastate Conflict and Conflict Resolution at the Harvard Kennedy School and president of the World Peace Foundation. He is the author or editor of numerous books and articles on international affairs and the United States, most recently Corruption, Global Security, and World Order (Brookings/WPF, 2009) and China into Africa: Trade, Aid, and Influence (Brookings/WPF, 2008).

What can be done to combat genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity? Why aren't current measures more effective? Is there hope for the future? These and other pressing questions surrounding human security are addressed head-on in this provocative and all-too-timely book.

Millions of people, particularly in Africa, face daily the prospect of death at the hands of state or state-linked forces. Although officially both the United Nations and the African
Union have adopted "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) principles, atrocities continue. The tenets of R2P, recently cited in a UN Outcomes Document, make it clear that states have a primary responsibility to protect their citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. When states cannot -or will not -protect their citizens, however, the international community must step into the breach.

Why have efforts to stop horrific state-sanctioned crimes seen only limited success, despite widespread support of R2P? As this enlightening volume explains and illustrates, converting a norm into effective preventive measures remains difficult. The contributors examine the legal framework to inhibit war crimes, use of the emerging R2P norm, the role of the International Criminal Court, and new technologically sophisticated methods
to gather early warnings of likely atrocity outbreaks. Together they show how mass atrocities may be anticipated, how they may be prevented, and when necessary, how they may be prosecuted.

Contributors include Claire Applegarth (Harvard Kennedy School), Andrew Block (Harvard Kennedy School), David M. Crane (Syracuse University College of Law), Frank Chalk (Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University), Richard J. Goldstone (Georgetown University Law Center), Don Hubert (University of Ottawa), Sarah Kreps (Cornell University), Dan Kuwali (Malawi Defence Force), Jennifer Leaning (Harvard Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights), Edward C. Luck (International Peace Institute), Robert I. Rotberg (Harvard Kennedy School), and Sarah Sewall (Harvard Kennedy School).