The International Response to the Crisis
in Hilmi M. Zawati, the Triumph of Ethnic Hatred and the Failure of International Political Will: Gendered Violence and Genocide in the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (Lewiston, N.Y.: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010) Pp. 201-267.
67 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2015
Date Written: November 12, 2010
Abstract
In the last two decades or so, minorities have been targeted and victimized in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South-eastern Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In many of these cases, the international community, represented by the United Nations, received early warnings of such events, but failed to take action soon enough to reduce human suffering and save lives.
To convey the idea of early warning and conflict resolution in a practical sense, this chapter tries to establish a clear conceptual definition of the procedure by concentrating on the possible role of the United Nations and its agencies in its development. Moreover, it discusses why the procedure failed so tragically to respond to those early warnings and to manage ethnic conflicts during the 1990s, particularly in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Furthermore, this chapter critically examines the abject failure of the international community’s political will to prevent or stop war, and discloses its suspicious role in managing the crisis whether by arming genocide or taking no action. It also underlines the immediate need for an effective reform of the United Nations to restore its role in maintaining international peace and security.
Keywords: Early Warning; Conflict Resolution; International Peace and Security; International Political Will; Former Yugoslavia; Rwanda; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Croatia; Kosovo; Hilmi Zawati.
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation