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Full Description
A chilling global history of the human shield phenomenon—now with urgent new reflections on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
In practically all contemporary wars, human shields are used to protect, coerce, deter, and legitimize lethal violence. Over the past decade, human shields have also appeared with increasing frequency in antinuclear struggles, civil and environmental protests, and even computer games. Those who use civilians to protect legitimate military targets commit a war crime; yet, accusing the enemy of hiding behind defenseless civilians has become a pretext for exercising inhumane violence.
Human Shields covers key historical and contemporary moments across the globe, from Syrian civilians locked in iron cages to the conflict in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza. Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini demonstrate how the increasing weaponization of human beings has made the position of civilians trapped in theaters of violence more precarious and their lives more expendable. Showing how the law facilitates the use of lethal violence against vulnerable people while portraying it as humane, they also reveal how people can and do use their own vulnerability to resist violence and denounce forms of dehumanization. Ultimately, Human Shields unsettles our common ethical assumptions about violence and the law and urges us to imagine entirely new forms of humane politics.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction
Preface: Shielding and the Destruction of Gaza
1 • Civil War
Humane Warfare in the United States
2 • Irregulars
The Franco-German War and the Legal Use of Human Shields
3 • Settlers
The Second Boer War and the Limits of Liberal Humanitarianism
4 • Reports
World War I and the German use of Human Screens
5 • Peace Army
International Pacifism and Voluntary Shielding during the Sino-Japanese War
6 • Emblem
The Italo-Ethiopian War and Red Cross Medical Facilities
7 • Nuremberg
Nazi Human Shielding and the Lack of Civilian Protections
8 • Codification
The Geneva Conventions and the Passive Civilian
9 • People's War
Casting Vietnamese Resistance as Human Shielding
10 • Environment
Green Human Shielding
11 • Resistance
Antimilitary Activism in Iraq and Palestine
12 • Humanitarian Crimes
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
13 • Manuals
Military Handbooks as Lawmaking Tools
14 • Scale
Human Shielding in Sri Lanka and the Principle of Proportionality
15 • Hospitals
The Use of Medical Facilities as Shields
16 • Proximity
Civilians Trapped in the Midst of the War on ISIS
17 • Info-War
The Gaza Wars and Social Media
18 • Posthuman Shielding
Drone Warfare and New Surveillance Technologies
19 • Women and Children
Gender, Passivity, and Human Shields
20 • Spectacle
Viral Images That Dehumanize or Humanize Shields
21 • Computer Games
Human Shields in Virtual Wars
22 • Protest
Civil Disobedience as an Act of War
Epilogue: Shielding Genocide
Acknowledgments
Notes
References
Index
