Off the shelf

Joint Force Quarterly, July, 2009 by R.E. Henstrand

Press, 2008

300 pp. $29.95

ISBN: 978-0-231-70036-8

What is a civilian?" asks Hugo Slim, a scholar of humanitarian studies, in this book. Noting that international law has never defined the term and that the Geneva Conventions only describe what a civilian is not, Slim examines the notion in the international community that unarmed and innocent people deserve protection in war. He leaves no stone unturned in his discussion of the practice by states and nonstate actors throughout history of killing, pillaging, plundering, raping, and displacing noncombatants. Slim deftly examines ideologies that allow and even encourage wanton abuse or killing of noncombatants and exposes the thought processes that seek to justify perpetrating what today we call crimes against humanity. He compares the horrific to the acceptable and discusses why some forms of killing civilians are considered justifiable. Slim argues that killing civilians in war is almost always immoral and all practical measures to avoid it should be rigorously applied. In the end, he admits that acts of violence against civilians may be an immutable aspect of war and the human condition and that the best we might hope for is to reduce its incidence through greater understanding of the motivations behind it.