War: The World Reacts

War is changing. Less and less are military disputes about power and possessions, more and more are they about beliefs and ethnicity; civil war is a growth industry. This leads, inevitably, to a change in the attitude to conflict – a change among those directly involved and a change among those trying to provide relief, aid, and resolution.

This book shows examples of the results of those attitudinal changes, by examining recent armed conflicts. We visit the original ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Yugoslavia 1991-2, the dilemma of Rwanda in ’94 and the ghastly stalemate in Chechnya. From these and other similar instances we build up a picture of relief agencies in action – everything from emergency water supplies to the digging out of landmines.

For such a dismal yet urgent subject the treatment throughout seems, though totally objective, remarkably light, and the book leaves little lasting impression. This is a pity, for its subject should provoke a more definite response than the ‘so what?’ that most readers will give it.