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From Kosovo to Kabul (and Beyond): Human Rights and International Intervention
David Chandler
Pluto, 2002, 2006
Synopsis
This new and updated edition of David Chandler's acclaimed book takes a critical look at the way in which human rights issues have been brought to the fore in international affairs.  The UN and NATO's new policy of interventionism - as shown in Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor - has been hailed as part of a new 'ethical' approach to foreign policy. David Chandler offers a rigorous critique of this apparently benign shift in international relations to reveal the worrying political implications of a new human rights discourse. He asks why the West can now prioritise the rights of individuals over the traditional rights of state sovereignty, and why this shift has happened so quickly. Charting the development of a human rights-based foreign policy, he considers the theoretical problems of defining human rights and sets this within the changing framework of international law. Meticulous and compelling, "From Kosovo to Kabul" offers a disturbing insight into the political implications of a human rights-led foreign policy, and the covert agenda that it conceals.
Reviews
Back cover comments:
The Independent 'Chandler deftly unpicks the hypocrisy and double standards behind our ''ethical'' bombing in the Balkans and Asia.'
Spiked 'Chandler's book is thorough and relentless in its critique of human rights consensus.'
The Spectator 'David Chandler has emerged in recent years as one of Britain's foremost critics of the hypocrisy of human rights.'
Political Quarterly 'An important and well-documented book, which should be on every list.'
Boyd Tonkin, Independent, 22 June 2002.
John Laughland, Spectator, 8 June 2002.
Gabor Sulyok, European Journal of International Law, Vol.15, (2004), pp.1055-1071.
Alex Bellamy, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Vol.57, No.3, (November 2003), pp.499-512.
Jon Holbrook, The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, Vol. 3 No. 2, Jan 2004.
George Brennan, Political Quarterly, 2002, pp.506-7.
Thomas Immanuel Steinberg, Konkret, August 2002, p.20.
Vemund Aarbakke, Journal of Peace Reseach, Vol. 39, No. 3, (May 2002), pp.373-4.
Paul Warde, Green Socialist, March 2003, p.10.
Tina Micklethwait, New World, Jan-Mar 2003, p.13.
Caroline Holmquist, Foreign Policy Centre Review, p.21.
Journal of Commonwealth Lawyers Association, December 2003, p.43.
Indymedia UK, 29 June 2004.
Amine Ait-Chaalal, Political Studies Review, Vol.1, No. 2, (April 2003), pp.274-288.
Sven Engel, Specterzine, 9 May 2003.
Thomas Immanuel Steinberg, Junge Welt, 24 August 2002.
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