Bargaining Away Justice: India, Pakistan, and the International Politics of Impunity for the Bangladesh Genocide

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 140-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary J. Bass
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Indian Government ◽  
Government Documents ◽  
War Criminals ◽  
War Crimes Trials ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time

This article expands the study of the politics of international criminal justice, restoring the crucial but overlooked case of Bangladesh, today the largest population confronting the aftermath of genocide. Bangladesh is one of the most important cases where the prosecution of war criminals was foiled, resulting in a disturbing impunity for one of the bloodiest incidents of the Cold War. Using unexplored declassified Indian government documents from archives in Delhi, this article uses detailed process-tracing to reveal for the first time why India and Bangladesh abandoned their plans to put accused Pakistani war criminals on trial after the 1971 war between India and Pakistan. In the face of Pakistani defiance, the Indian and Bangladeshi governments reluctantly bargained away justice in order to pursue their national security, with peacemaking with Pakistan proving more important than war crimes trials. This episode furthers the general understanding of both the causes and results of impunity for mass atrocities, while extending the study of international justice into Asia. Bangladesh's tragic experience shows the primacy of international security, while also tentatively suggesting that even when amnesty is necessary for peacemaking, it can leave a toxic legacy for future politics.

Intelligence, Security and the Attlee Governments, 1945-51

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel W. B. Lomas
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Intimate Relationship ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
Security Services ◽  
Defence Policy ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
At Home

Drawing extensively on recently released documents and private papers, this is the first extensive book-length study to examine the intimate relationship between the Attlee government and Britain’s intelligence and security services. Often praised for the formation of the modern-day ‘welfare state’, Attlee’s government also played a significant, if little understood, role in combatting communism at home and overseas, often in the face of vocal, sustained, opposition from their own backbenches. Beneath Attlee’s calm exterior lay a dedicated, if at times cautious, Cold War warrior, dedicated to combatting communism at home and overseas. This study tells the story of Attlee’s Cold War. At home, the Labour government implemented vetting to protect Whitehall and other areas of the Cold War state from communists, while, overseas, Attlee and his Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin authorised a series of highly secret special operations in Eastern Europe, designed to erode Soviet influence, told here for the first time in significant detail. More widely, Ministers also strengthened Imperial and Commonwealth security and, responding to a series of embarrassing spy scandals, tried to revive Britain’s vital nuclear transatlantic ‘special relationship’ with Washington. This study is essential reading for anyone interested in the Labour Party, intelligence, security and Britain’s foreign and defence policy at the start of the Cold War.

Christian Radicalism in the Church of England and the Invention of the British Sixties, 1957-1970

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Brewitt-Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Social Revolution ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Moral Arguments ◽  
Cultural Origins ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Church

Like all transformative revolutions, Britain’s Sixties was an episode of highly influential myth-making. This book delves behind the mythology of inexorable ‘secularization’ to recover, for the first time, the cultural origins of Britain’s moral revolution. In a radical departure from conventional teleologies, it argues that British secularity is a specific cultural invention of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was introduced most influentially by radical utopian Christians during this most desperate episode of the Cold War. In the 1950s, Britain’s predominantly Christian moral culture had marginalized ‘secular’ moral arguments by arguing that they created societies like the Soviet Union; but the rapid acceptance of ‘secularization’ teleologies in the early 1960s abruptly normalized ‘secular’ attitudes and behaviours, thus prompting the slow social revolution that unfolded during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. By tracing the evolving thought of radical Anglicans—uniquely positioned in the late 1950s and early 1960s as simultaneously moral radicals and authoritative moral insiders—this book reveals crucial and unexpected intellectual links between radical Christianity and the wider invention of Britain’s new secular morality, in areas as diverse as globalism, anti-authoritarianism, sexual liberation, and revolutionary egalitarianism. From the mid-1960s, British secularity began to be developed by a much wider range of groups, and radical Anglicans faded into the cultural background. Yet by disseminating the deeply ideological metanarrative of ‘secularization’ in the early 1960s, and by influentially discussing its implications, they had made crucial contributions to the nature and existence of Britain’s secular revolution.

Human Destiny Is a Choice

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
World Order ◽  
Military Spending ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Global World ◽  
First Time ◽  
Human Destiny

In this chapter, Haq outlines his optimistic outlook for global world order. For him the end of the Cold War had opened up many more choices for the global community. For the first time global military spending was seen to be declining every year. He saw potential to reallocate ODA aid funds, which were previously tilted in favour of cold war allies. For Haq the challenge is to link economic growth as the means to human development as an objective. He stresses on the need to reform institutions of global governance to translate globalization into opportunities for people.

The Law of International Criminal Procedure and Domestic War Crimes Trials

2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 605-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göran Sluiter
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Procedure ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
National Courts ◽  
International Criminal Tribunals ◽  
War Crimes Trials ◽  
The Law ◽  
Do So

AbstractThis article deals with the question of possible effect of the law of international criminal procedure for domestic war crimes trials. With the increasing number of national prosecutions for war crimes this question will gain in relevance.The article starts with an exploration of the origin and development of the law of international criminal procedure, to reach the conclusion that because of the lack of a strong foundation it is difficult to discern firmly established rules in this field. Next, two areas are examined where the law of international criminal procedure is capable of producing effect for national trials: human rights and rules that have developed in the specific context of war crimes prosecutions.Whether rules of international criminal procedure are formally effective in the domestic legal order remains to be seen. There is no clear obligation under international law to do so. Furthermore, the law of international criminal procedure may be difficult to harmonise with domestic inquisitorial systems.In spite of these difficulties, the article concludes that national courts will increasingly face similar procedural problems in complex war crimes trials as international criminal tribunals and will be happy to learn from their experiences.

Die harte Schule der neuen Gewalt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Rinke
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Thought Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
East West

This study examines the fundamental new direction in German theological peace ethics since the end of the East–West conflict. It guides the reader through the thought processes and discoveries of leading Catholic and Protestant peace ethicists and, in doing so, through the significant developments in theological peace ethics in Germany amid the tough new realities that have emerged since the end of the Cold War. In addition, the book discusses the normative premises for conduct conducive to peace which German theological peace ethics has devised in order to fulfil its responsibility to the world in the face of today’s new, violent conflicts.

Deterrence Then and Now.

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
James A. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Nuclear Weapons ◽  
International System ◽  
Initial Attack ◽  
Extended Deterrence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nuclear Attack ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract: Against the backdrop of an international system becoming more confrontational in nature, the subject of deterrence is back again. This article provides an overview of the nature of the deterrence problem during the Cold War period and today. While the broader circumstances have changed markedly, today, the central issue of deterrence remains the same as in the Cold War: how to maintain the credibility of the American threat to employ nuclear weapons in the defense of allies in the face of adversaries that can retaliate with devastating nuclear attacks against the US itself. There is little doubt about the threat of the US or other nuclear powers to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack against their own homelands, so long as those retaliatory forces can survive the initial attack. The problem is the credibility of US extended deterrence.

The Sound of a Superpower

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Abrams Ansari
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Cold War ◽  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
White House ◽  
American Composers ◽  
American Nationalism ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
War Propaganda ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
First Time

Classical composers seeking to create an American sound enjoyed unprecedented success during the 1930s and 1940s. Aaron Copland, Roy Harris, Howard Hanson, and others brought national and international attention to American composers for the first time in history. In the years after World War II, however, something changed. The prestige of musical Americanism waned rapidly as anti-Communists made accusations against leading Americanist composers. Meanwhile, a method of harmonic organization that some considered more Cold War–appropriate—serialism—began to rise in status. For many composers and historians, the Cold War had effectively “killed off” musical Americanism. In this book, the author offers a fuller, more nuanced picture of the effect of the Cold War on Americanist composers. She shows that the ideological conflict brought both challenges and opportunities. Some leftist Americanist composers struggled greatly in this new artistic and political environment, especially as American nationalism increasingly meant American exceptionalism. But composers of all political stripes would find in the federal government a new and unique channel through which to ensure the survival of musical Americanism, as the White House sought to use American music as a Cold War propaganda tool and American composers as cultural diplomats. The Americanists’ efforts to safeguard the reputation of their style would have significant consequences. Ultimately, they effected a rebranding of musical Americanism, with consequences that remain with us today.

Part 1 Introduction, 1 Criminal Responsibility in International Law

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
van Sliedregt Elies
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Law ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Criminal Law ◽  
Humanitarian Law ◽  
Laws Of War ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Modern Warfare

The reality of warfare has changed considerably over time. While most, if not all, armed conflicts were once fought between states, many are now fought within states. Particularly since the end of the Cold War the world has witnessed an outbreak of non-international armed conflicts, often of an ethnic nature. Since the laws of war are for the most part still premised on the concept of classic international armed conflict, it proved difficult to fit this law into ‘modern’ war crimes trials dealing with crimes committed during non-international armed conflicts. The criminal law process has therefore ‘updated’ the laws of war. The international criminal judge has brought the realities of modern warfare into line with the purpose of the laws of war (the prevention of unnecessary suffering and the enforcement of ‘fair play’). It is in war crimes law that international humanitarian law has been further developed. This chapter discusses the shift from war crimes law to international criminal law, the concept of state responsibility for individual liability for international crimes, and the nature and sources of international criminal law.

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