...destruction, reborn as a more emphatic project of Iraqi liberation and democracy-building. The language of military necessity and legal authorisation was replaced by squarely humanitarian discourses of liberation, freedom, self-government, and reconstruction.

And yet the sense lingered among many international humanitarians that, off-screen, there persisted goals, interests and policies on the part of the 'coalition of the willing' that were not entirely humanitarian in aspiration. International humanitarians were thus left feeling torn between their antagonism towards the occupation of Iraq, and the impetus to embrace explicitly humanitarian commitments; between resentment of the events of 2003, and a strong will to relevance.

Even as the United States-led coalition transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi Government, this internal conflict did not disappear. Rather, a sense remained for many international lawyers of the need to re-examine the potential 'dark sides' of humanitarian discourse, as it had been deployed in Iraq.

Against this background, the release of The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism (1) could not be more timely. David Kennedy has been one of the definitive critical voices in international law theory over the last two decades, and in this book he ties together many of the strands of that criticism to present a powerful commentary on international humanitarianism today, even in its more self-critical, pragmatic incarnation. Kennedy argues that it is not only the misuses of humanitarian discourse by 'other people', or blind spots and biases of implementation, which cause the humanitarian project to go wrong at the level of consequences. Rather, Kennedy argues that, from a pragmatic viewpoint, the humanitarian project is flawed in a much deeper, structural sense.

I OUTLINE

The book is built around Kennedy's provocative 2001 article, 'The International Human Rights Movement: Part of the Problem?', (2) in which he outlined nine potential 'dark sides' to the international human rights project. In the book, Kennedy goes on to illustrate these dark sides more profoundly, by drawing on his previous writing about the human rights movement, (3) law and development, (4) law and European integration, (5) and refugee law and protection. (6) Those familiar with his work will note that the book includes in chs 2 and 3 revised versions of two of his extremely well-known previous articles, 'Spring Break' (7) and 'Autumn Weekends'. (8) In addition, Kennedy draws on a week-long experience in 1998 in the Persian Gulf on the USS Independence, and his reactions to the...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



More articles from Melbourne Journal of International Law
Universalising International Law.(Book Review), October 01, 2004

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