Book Reviews

The Politics of World Federation

World Federalists who would like to know more about their roots have a new treasure here. The first sentence of this new two-volume work by a professional historian (who knows the movement from within as well as through intensive study) succinctly describes the whole: "This book is a history of the practical, political efforts to establish a constitutionally limited, democratically representative, federal world government in order to effectively abolish war."

One World Democracy: A Progressive Vision for Enforceable Global

This new book is a straightforward let's-look-at-the-arguments appeal to progressive thinkers to accept nothing less than a radically changed international system focused on enforceable global law as the only way to abolish war and militarism as well as really addressing other global problems such as limiting population growth, preventing and halting the spread of global epidemics, preserving the environment, dealing with the problem of poverty, and limiing the activities of global corporations.

America the Almighty

America the Almighty, a devastating critique of American foreign policy, examines both healthy and dangerous trends in international relations. It shows how, all too frequently, the Bush administration has become the cause of the latter.

Damours identifies two primary currents in human society: universalism, which seeks the welfare of all humanity, and tribalism, which advances the local and parochial at the expense of the whole. Following a great build-up of international institutions (the United Nations, the Breton Woods financial bodies, et al.) after World War II, U.S. foreign policy has shifted decisively in the tribalistic direction, especially in the Bush administration. This has made us an arrogant bully in our conduct of foreign affairs, "a spoiled child with too much power."

The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All

This clearly written book is a must-read if you believe in our common humanity and are interested in human rights and international affairs. The author takes the reader on a journey to the cutting edge of contemporary human-rights thinking and into the evolution of a new concept that, if realized, will save countless lives by preventing or ending mass atrocity crimes.

He lays out the case why governments share in a Responsibility to Protect (R2P), and how they all came to accept it - at least in principle - during the 2005 United Nations World Summit. This accomplishment is nothing short of miraculous given the relatively brief period of incubation during which the concept matured and managed to gain acceptance. It is all the more astounding since it adds an interpretation to the notion of national sovereignty, the most sacred of sacred cows behind which governments like to hide in order to shield themselves from accountability for actions and inaction alike.