The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was founded in 1863 and is often considered the gold standard in humanitarian action. Despite its many positive achievements over more than 150 years, some former ICRC officials believe that the organization is now in decline because of a series of recent policy choices. Their view is that the organization has undermined its reputation for independent and neutral humanitarian action, while growing too fast and too large, which has weakened its reputation for quick, tightly focused, and effective action in the field. David P. Forsythe revisits the ICRC policy decisions of recent decades and suggests that the organization is not in fatal decline, but that it does need to reconsider some of its policies at the margins. Though some errors have been made and some corrections are in order, Forsythe argues that its obituary is premature.

A search of this English language version of the ICRC site provides reports on the current humanitarian initiatives of this organization in any given country.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a complex position in international relations, being the guardian of international humanitarian law but often acting discretely to advance human dignity. Treated by most governments as if it were an inter-governmental organization, the ICRC is a non-governmental organization, all-Swiss at the top, and it is given rights and duties in the 1949 Geneva Conventions for Victims of War. Written by two formidable experts in the field, this book analyzes international humanitarian action as practiced by the International Red Cross, explaining its history and structure as well as examining contemporary field experience and broad diplomatic initiatives related to its principal tasks. Such tasks include: ensuring that detention conditions are humane for those imprisoned by reason of political conflict or war providing material and moral relief in conflict promoting development of the humanitarian part of the laws of war improving the unity and effectiveness of the movement Fully updated throughout, the new edition will also include brand new material on: armed actors who do not accept humanitarian restrictions on their actions, including expanded coverage of the Islamic State (ISIL, ISIS), Al Shabab, and Boko Haram, among others Syrian internationalized civil war issue of drone strikes and targeted killings, and the continuing push for regulation of what is called cyber war the question of the field of application of international humanitarian law (what is the battlefield?). Particularly when states declare "war" on "terrorist groups" operating inside other states regulation of new weapons and new uses of old weapons

This book conducts the first ever comprehensive study of the ICRC’s interpretations and law-ascertainments. It analyses in detail their impact on the development of international humanitarian law and international law in general as well as the reasons for their impact. This analysis involves the discussion of the ICRC’s authority. Is it legal or just factual authority? The analysis also illuminates the direction that IHL – and international law in general – develops. This insight sheds light on the question of the current type of international law, i.e., what international law is and who makes it.

This book provides the first comprehensive critical analysis of the regulation of naval weapons during armed conflict. It examines the experience this century with the use of naval mines, submarines and anti-ship missiles, the three main naval weapons. The sources of international law relevant to an assessment of the law, that is the extant conventions, state practice, military manuals, war crimes prosecutions, and the opinions of publicists, are each extensively examined so that a clear picture of the law emerges. The book examines the impact of agreements drawn up in peacetime on wartime conduct and focuses on the growth of law through customary practice. While stating the law as it is today, it also provides suggestions for the practical development of the law.

Applies the New Haven School approach explaining discrete aspects of the global decision process and their effects on the content of international legal rules. Provides an in-depth treatment of the key features of the New Haven School of international law. References both classic historical examples and contemporary events to illustrate international legal processes and principles. Focuses on important trends in international law, including the movement from a state-centered system to a people-centered one. Contributes to the growth of a world community of human dignity through international law. -- Publishers website.

This book analyses how existing international law limits the use of means of warfare utilising the properties of nanomaterials.

"We are living through the endtimes of the civilizing mission. The ineffectual International Criminal Court and its disastrous first prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, along with the failure in Syria of the Responsibility to Protect are the latest pieces of evidence not of transient misfortunes but of fatal structural defects in international humanism. Whether it is the increase in deadly attacks on aid workers, the torture and 'disappearing' of al-Qaeda suspects by American officials, the flouting of international law by states such as Sri Lanka and Sudan, or the shambles of the Khmer Rouge tribunal in Phnom Penh, the prospect of one world under secular human rights law is receding. What seemed like a dawn is in fact a sunset. The foundations of universal liberal norms and global governance are crumbling."—from The Endtimes of Human RightsIn a book that is at once passionate and provocative, Stephen Hopgood argues, against the conventional wisdom, that the idea of universal human rights has become not only ill adapted to current realities but also overambitious and unresponsive. A shift in the global balance of power away from the United States further undermines the foundations on which the global human rights regime is based. American decline exposes the contradictions, hypocrisies and weaknesses behind the attempt to enforce this regime around the world and opens the way for resurgent religious and sovereign actors to challenge human rights.Historically, Hopgood writes, universal humanist norms inspired a sense of secular religiosity among the new middle classes of a rapidly modernizing Europe. Human rights were the product of a particular worldview (Western European and Christian) and specific historical moments (humanitarianism in the nineteenth century, the aftermath of the Holocaust). They were an antidote to a troubling contradiction—the coexistence of a belief in progress with horrifying violence and growing inequality. The obsolescence of that founding purpose in the modern globalized world has, Hopgood asserts, transformed the institutions created to perform it, such as the International Committee of the Red Cross and recently the International Criminal Court, into self-perpetuating structures of intermittent power and authority that mask their lack of democratic legitimacy and systematic ineffectiveness. At their best, they provide relief in extraordinary situations of great distress; otherwise they are serving up a mixture of false hope and unaccountability sustained by "human rights" as a global brand.The Endtimes of Human Rights is sure to be controversial. Hopgood makes a plea for a new understanding of where hope lies for human rights, a plea that mourns the promise but rejects the reality of universalism in favor of a less predictable encounter with the diverse realities of today's multipolar world.

The fourth edition of this successful textbook has been revised and updated in light of recent events, and includes a new chapter on the rise of cyberpower. Its comprehensive coverage of issues of war and peace such as terrorism, intelligence, and weapons of mass destruction makes it the major strategic studies textbook in the field.