In her award-winning interrogation of the last century of American history, Samantha Power—a former Balkan war correspondent and founding executive director of Harvard's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy—asks the haunting question: Why do American leaders who vow "never again" repeatedly fail to stop genocide? Drawing upon exclusive interviews with Washington's top policy makers, access to newly declassified documents, and her own reporting from the modern killing fields, Power provides the answer in "A Problem from Hell," a groundbreaking work that tells the stories of the courageous Americans who risked their careers and lives in an effort to get the United States to act.

Amazon.com Review
During the three years (1993-1996) Samantha Power spent covering the grisly events in Bosnia and Srebrenica, she became increasingly frustrated with how little the United States was willing to do to counteract the genocide occurring there. After much research, she discovered a pattern: "The United States had never in its history intervened to stop genocide and had in fact rarely even made a point of condemning it as it occurred," she writes in this impressive book. Debunking the notion that U.S. leaders were unaware of the horrors as they were occurring against Armenians, Jews, Cambodians, Iraqi Kurds, Rwandan Tutsis, and Bosnians during the past century, Power discusses how much was known and when, and argues that much human suffering could have been alleviated through a greater effort by the U.S. She does not claim that the U.S. alone could have prevented such horrors, but does make a convincing case that even a modest effort would have had significant impact. Based on declassified information, private papers, and interviews with more than 300 American policymakers, Power makes it clear that a lack of political will was the most significant factor for this failure to intervene. Some courageous U.S. leaders did work to combat and call attention to ethnic cleansing as it occurred, but the vast majority of politicians and diplomats ignored the issue, as did the American public, leading Power to note that "no U.S. president has ever suffered politically for his indifference to its occurrence. It is thus no coincidence that genocide rages on." This powerful book is a call to make such indifference a thing of the past. --Shawn Carkonen

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 187 reviews)

Thorough Study of Genocide History

Samantha Power has produced a history of genocide through the 20th century. She presents an impressive accounts of genocide against Armenians in Turkey, Jews in Holocaust, Tutsi in Rwanda, Kurds in Iraq, and Bosnian Muslims in the Balkan war; the stories are extremely well-written, and the images are vivid. Apart from stories about the conflicts themselves, she gives credit to the individuals who contributed to political understanding of genocide and recognition of the term in international law. She puts heavy emphasis on the role of the United States in dealing with genocide, mostly taking the critical stance.

The book is remarkably unbiased, as a great piece of journalist prose. Samantha Power spent several years in Bosnia as a reporter for the Western magazines, and her writing style evolved to reflect vivid images while passing information and truth to her reader. She is not judging the culprits of genocide, including a chapter about the war tribunals instead. That leaves the reader with an option of making one's own choices in thinking about genocide.

The book is a great source of information on genocide, foreign policy of the United States, and the role of individuals in dealing with the "problems from hell." Simply brilliant reading and definitely worth your time!
July 24, 2008

An important book to read

I found this book incredibly insightful. The book is a thoughtful narration on why genocide is difficult to confront. From the United States perspective, the author explains why time after time, among different administrations, liberal or conservative, leaders and common folk choose to ignore genocide. What does anyone personally have to gain from stopping genocide? Very little and requires tremendous sacrifice. The subject matter is not easy to read but the author skillfully tells personal stories to make this a compelling and dramatic read. I highly recommend this book.
June 22, 2008

Good, if simplified call to arms against genocide

While I have some issues with this work, it is, overall, a good piece of journalism and a major call to arms against the legacy of inertia when genocide is involved. Power delineates the history of the Genocide Convention and its applications. She also does great case studies of genocides in Bosnia, Rwanda, and Cambodia showing the failures of US policy at the times of genocides.

She is also unwilling to excuse inertia at the time of genocide for such excuses as national security and protection of American interest. The repulsion of protecting the Khmer Rouge for the sake of hurting Viet Nam is well acknowledged. The inaction in Rwanda because of the problems found in Somalia is equally well documented.

My issues with this book stem neither from the facts nor from the general sentiment. They really arise in her oversimplification over several international issues. She uses the phrase "Turkey" as if such a nation existed at the time of the Armenian Genocide. She is constantly changing the words for ethnic groups that people use. And, she oversimplifies the American response specifically to the Cambodian Genocide. While I understand that it is warranted to a degree to keep the reader on the issue of specific genocides, in reality it seems that she may be trying to hide something for those who know the international situations at the times.

All and all it is a good book. Her critique of the Clinton Administration, and its refusal to lead world opinion, is something that could be taken from the works of Zbigniew Brzezinski. Her call to arms against genocide is one that must be made so that we can say "Never again," again. Yet, her continuous over simplification of global situations seems to avoid the need for counterargument in the work. I would read it, but it is not a must read.

June 06, 2008

What About America's own Age of its Genocide?

The phrase, "A Problem From Hell" is a gripping metaphor of our troubled times. And this is a meticulously research and well-written (although a bit dense for my taste) book adequately covering the tip of the iceberg of that subject.

However, and meaning no disrespect to this brilliant author, it must be said that we have seen these sensitivities and sensibilities come and go before in the form of eagle scout exuberance, and mostly liberal-leaning "do-gooder" NGOs, and neophyte overly excitable roving reporters. And while we could throw up a whole of wall of clichés that would better make my larger point, it must be said that "trading in" self-righteous indignation" very much after the fact is a "detail" but hardly a policy prescription, and certainly not a useful way to solve complex international problems.

Yes, it is true that rather than enter World War I, which would surely have been the result had the U.S. intervened on behalf of the Armenians against the Turks in 1915-1916 does leave a lasting bitter taste in the mouth. Or, the same can be said for the rationalizations against bombing the railroads leading to the Nazi concentration camps, or not allowing more Jews fleeing those horrors to enter the U.S., or moving too slowly and too late in Yugoslavia, or not at all to stop the genocide in Cambodia and Rwanda - and even today, of making sweet sounding noises but doing nothing in Darfur.

And although, as the last standing superpower we may have had (and may still have) a "special responsibility" to use our power to intervene in many of these instances, we are not the only members of the international community that must live with the moral guilt of our own international cowardliness and "chosen ability" not to act to save hundreds of thousands of innocent lives.

Despite this, since every U.S. President who has had to face an ongoing questions of genocide, has also found convenient ways to either ignore or rationalize them away, we must ask the question at the subtext of this research: Are these then all just matters of cold-blooded raw calculations of rational decision making? Or simply just cases of weighing national means and costs against rational ends and returns to the national interests? Rather than questions of pure morality? Or is there something deeper going on here?

Far be it for me to rain on the author's award winning parade.

However it must be said, if only in passing, that it is curious indeed how a book on genocide can take the U.S to task and at the same time simply leap frog right over the most sordid aspects of the U.S. own genocidal history and find a neat landing in an island clearing that is as morally pristine as it is naive:

Neither the genocide against Native Americans nor against African Americans during slavery merited even so much as a footnote in the book, apparently neither was relevant enough to be mentioned, even once. Like a cat, somehow the author manages to land on both feet in a clearing on the other side of this historical messiness with her humanity, morality, innocence and self-righteous indignation, all still unperturbed and perfectly intact. How can this be done?

If genocide at home has no more moral meaning or consequence than that, then maybe doing nothing is the prefect answer to all genocide, whether home or abroad, and whether in the past, present or the future. If we use past U.S. sensitivity to genocide as a guide, one would be led to ask: Where is the problem? Maybe the author is doing exactly what one raised in the U.S. should do: pretend that that there is no connection between the past and the future, and just keep leaping over to the next moral clearing. After all we did not fail to sign the International Treaty Against Genocide without a good reason?

This moral prestidigitation of course has its own precedents and raises its own separate questions: Can a nation that fails to confront honestly the genocide in its own closeted past really be expected to intervene when it occurs in the international arena? Yes, it is sad that in every instance that we had the chance to, except Yugoslavia, we failed to muster the moral strength and courage to intervene. But it is infinitely sadder not to realize that this cowardliness stems in part, directly from our own domestic home-grown genocidal experiences. As a final note, perhaps it is a little known fact that it was the U.S. Eugenics program that served as the model for Hitler's "Final Solution. What is the cliché about charity begins at home?

Four Stars
May 21, 2008

Holocaust trivialization effect

According to this author the 20th century was "the age of genocide". Incredibly, in this massive narrative of over 600 pages she feels no need to address the phrase from the title. Having announced that the purpose of her book, in part, is to survey "the major genocides of the twentieth century" (p. xv) she celebrates "those who have refused to remain silent in the age of genocide" (p. xviii). This may be the only time the phrase occurs in this voluminous book. Hence, the idea that the twentieth century was the age of genocide is simply taken for granted. Power is not alone in so characterizing the past century; it is quite a trendy claim, in fact. Thus, according to R.J. Rummel's calculations the genocides of the twentieth century have killed more than four times as many people as all the wars and revolutions of the same time period combined. This way of counting causes of death is more than likely dubious, it fits with the fashionable nonsense du jour that we live in an age of genocide.

This attitude of simply screaming "genocide" whenever one feels like it leads to the social phenomenon I call "genocidalism of commission" (see Aleksandar Jokic, "Genocidalism" The Journal of Ethics Vol. 8, No. 2, 2004, pp.251-250) defined thusly: the energetic attributions of "genocide" in less than clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation. Power's book is an example of genocidalist literature par excellence:

The main theoretical "contribution" of the book is deeply flawed. Power chastises the U.S. and its policymakers for failing to respond to specific genocides in the twentieth century. Implausibly, the U.S. is presented as an ideal observer (as if angelic intelligence from heaven) that has no possible (let alone real) contributory causal role in mass-killings around the globe. For her the only question is why the U.S. regularly does nothing or too little, despite its unquestioned might, to ensure that genocide does not repeatedly occur. Her puzzle is this: Why the U.S. does not eradicate genocide once and for all? Ignoring the fact of genocides completed against a series of Native American nations in the century that just preceded the alleged "age of genocide" Power unconvincingly simply pretends that the U.S. is not capable of deploying the favorite trick of all empires, divide et impera, and engage in mass killings (or have it done by a proxy).

Consequently, "genocidalism of commission," or genocidal use of "genocide," amounts to giving alleged "genocides" an inappropriate kind of attention: camouflaged as genuine concern for the evil contained in genocide the real interest is of another sort, e.g., the outcomes may have clear propagandistic connotation. This is morally inappropriate even when well grounded in the politically correct phraseology of the day, and applied to the geopolitically targeted groups selected for "treatment" by the super-power. It may be that the genocidalism of commission has as its ultimate aim or at least its consequences inevitably lead to the silence and cover up of real genocides. And the ultimate outcome of this practice is the trivialization of the Holocaust.

May 03, 2008

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