[David Kennedy, The Dark Side of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism, Princeton University Press (2004), ISBN: 0-691-12394-2, pp.368]

Faced with the large-scale brutality that has taken place in different regions of the globe, particularly in the last few decades, the issue of humanitarian intervention has once again taken the forefront of international debate and policy-making. Names such as Somalia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Kosovo and now Darfur not only fill the mind with vivid memories of the horrific slaughters that transpired, but also of the mistakes and failures in how each was dealt with by the international community. The responses, if they came at all, were often unequipped and unorganized, wrought with uncertain mandates and excessive delays. Clearly frustrated with this record of inadequacy, scholars and experts exploring the dimensions of humanitarian intervention have been faced with the same dilemmas each time crimes against humanity, acts of genocide or violent civil wars are occurring: What are the obligations or responsibilities of the world’s nations in the face of such suffering and humanitarian emergencies? Is this intervention, in the defense of humanity’s most basic rights, sustainable and how should it be properly implemented? In what ways can the most well-intentioned of interventions be led astray and how can such costly errors be avoided?

In his recent book, The Dark Sides of Virtue: reassessing international humanitarianism, Harvard Law School Professor and leading international legal scholar, David Kennedy examines these provocative issues, stressing that in order for these questions to be resolved in a practical and effective manner for the sake of the vulnerable lives in peril, they must be addressed within the framework of the rule of law as it applies to each individual and the world as a whole.

Kennedy begins by stating at the outset that he has written this book “in the hope that well-meaning people, people who hope to make the world a more humane and just place, will find better ways to make those yearnings real.” In...