Virtual Book Launch - March 2022

PREPARING FOR WAR: THE MAKING OF THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS

March 22nd, 2022 | 14:30 (Israel time) 13:30 (CET) 08:30 (EDT)

The 1949 Geneva Conventions are the most important rules for armed conflict ever formulated. To this day they continue to shape contemporary debates about regulating warfare, but their history is often misunderstood.

For most observers, the drafters behind these treaties were primarily motivated by liberal humanitarian principles and the shock of the atrocities of the Second World War. This book tells a different story. Through extensive archival research and critical legal methodologies, Preparing for War establishes that although they did not seek war, the Conventions' drafters prepared for it by means of weaving a new legal safety net in the event that their worst fear should materialize, a spectre still haunting us today.

Author:

Boyd van Dijk - McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne


Commentators:

Doreen Lustig - Tel Aviv University Law Faculty

Kubo Mačák - Legal Adviser, International Committee of the Red Cross


Moderator:

Ido Rosenzweig, ALMA Chairman