The International Dimension of Genocide in Rwanda. By Arthur J. Klinghoffer. New York: New York University Press, 1998. 208p. $40.00.

Extract

This well-documented book analyzes the manifold inconsistent, inefficient, piecemeal, and sometimes counterproductive ways the international community intervened in the dynamics of violence that beset Rwanda before, during, and after the 1994 genocide. Klinghoffer takes a position that runs counter to the popular description of the international community as being totally inactive and uncaring before and during the genocide. Rather, he maintains, interventions did take place, but they failed to achieve their aims. At a descriptive level, Klinghoffer, following Bruce Jones (“‘Intervention without Borders:’ Humanitarian Intervention in Rwanda 1990–1994,” Millennium 24 [Summer 1995]: 225–49), makes this point rather successfully. The book contains many interesting pieces of information that, taken together, force us to acknowledge some new elements in the simple picture that has become so dominant about the international community's conduct in Rwanda.