The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza
The principle of the “lesser evil”—the acceptability of pursuing one
exceptional course of action in order to prevent a greater injustice—has
long been a cornerstone of Western ethical philosophy. From its roots in
classical ethics and Christian theology, to Hannah Arendt’s exploration of
the work of the Jewish Councils during the Nazi regime, Weizman explores
its development in three key transformations of the problem: the defining
intervention of Médecins Sans Frontières in mid-1980s Ethiopia; the
separation wall in Israel-Palestine; and international and human rights law
in Bosnia, Gaza and Iraq. Drawing on a wealth of new research, Weizman
charts the latest manifestation of this age-old idea. In doing so he shows
how military and political intervention acquired a new “humanitarian”
acceptability and legality in the late twentieth and early twenty-first
centuries.
Hardback, 224 pages
ISBN: 9781844676477
June 2012
$26.95 / £16.99 / $33.50CAN
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