The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza

Weizman, Eyal

ISBN 10: 1844676471 / ISBN 13: 9781844676477

Published by Verso, 2012

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Seller Inventory # ERICA77318446764716

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza
• Publisher: Verso
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844676471
• ISBN 13: 9781844676477
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Like New
• Book Type: book

About this title

Synopsis

Groundbreaking exploration of the philosophy underpinning Western humanitarian intervention

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.

About the Author

Eyal Weizman is Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London, where he directs the Centre for Research Architecture and the European Research Council funded project Forensic Architecture. He is also a founder member of the collective Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency (DAAR) in Bethlehem, Palestine. He is the author of Hollow Land, The Least of All Possible Evils, and co-editor of A Civilian Occupation. He lives in London.