FREEDOM ON FIRE: Human Rights Wars and America's Response

A self-described "human rights hawk," Shattuck has had a three-decade career including a term with Amnesty International and culminating in a stint as chief human rights official in the Clinton Administration from 1993 to 1998. Shattuck's years of experience give impact and insight to his analysis of a post–Cold War environment that restricted U.S. intervention in human rights catastrophes that cost as many as five million lives. Bureaucratic infighting and public support (or its lack) were, he argues, exacerbated by a "Somalia syndrome," making the administration unwilling to risk the domestic fallout from further loss of lives. Shattuck spent his government career trying to overcome that structure of obstacles—with at best mixed success. The strength of the book is its four case studies. Rwanda, according to Shattuck, was a genocide that might have been prevented. In Bosnia, eventual U.S. intervention did break a decade-long cycle of killing. In Haiti the U.S. succeeded in building an international coalition to step in before human rights abuses became catastrophic. And in China, "politics as usual" left human rights issues trampled in the dust. Shattuck combines morality and pragmatism, arguing that even before September 11, the costs to the U.S. of not intervening quickly and decisively in developing human rights crises outweighed the advantages of remaining on the sidelines. Without assistance, states collapse, and failed states become centers of disorder and loci of terrorism. Shattuck correspondingly calls for a redefinition of international security, based on early warning of human rights crises followed by preventive measures, and, where necessary, direct intervention, including military force. Recent events in Iraq will factor into readers' weighing of Shattuck's argument. (Nov.)