Le docteur Albert Reverdin était un homme d'action, à l'intelligence largement ouverte, à l'esprit lucide, impérieux et prompt, à la volonté droite, à la main sûre, au cœur secret et généreux: une personnalité forte, et souple, toujours d'accord avec elle-même, et où s'associaient, avec les certitudes de la raison, les impulsions du sentiment et les ressources séduisantes de l'intuition. Homme de franc parler, sans faiblesse et sans détours, homme de commandement, homme de dévouement. Ce qu'il voulait, il l'aimait; ce qu'il aimait, il le voulait. Les causes qu'il avait choisies, elles le prenaient tout entier.

Inter-State wars seem to have come to an end in the late 1990s; ever since, the global reality of collective violence has come down to the chaos of contemporary civil wars and terrorist attacks. In this article, it will be argued that in today's civil wars, as well as in terrorist violence, the traditional warrior ethos is fading, giving way to types of violence governed by a new psychological and social paradigm. In other words, it is assumed that the very set of values that has universally determined the male gender role and the frame of hegemonic masculinity since time immemorial has also informed the waging of war according to a “heroic regime of violence”, and this phenomenon has made war a desirable option for countless generations of young men. On the other hand, the global changes entailed by modernity seem to have undermined this warrior ethos, giving way to a “post-heroic regime” in which extermination-oriented violence, rather than combat-oriented violence, is fostered. In this article, the author will scrutinize the founding psychological and social determinants that have so far upheld the cultural construct of the heroic model, in order to illuminate the ominous consequences of the deculturation of war in today's chaotic conflicts. In such contexts, the men who are fighting1 suffer from a loss of meaning and the impossibility of gaining dignity and social recognition in an ecosystem of humiliation and ubiquitous violence that has little to do with the expectations of pride and dignity conveyed by the past ideals of heroism associated with a certain vision of masculinity. The article will also discuss ways and means of getting the message of international humanitarian law through to men on the front lines caught up in such circumstances.

Quelques heures avant son départ pour Sarajevo, en mai dernier, Frédéric Maurice nous remettait les derniers feuillets d'un article destiné à la Revue. Il voulait encore y réfléchir et parfaire son texte. Le destin en a décidé autrement puisque Frédéric devait tomber dans des circonstances tragiques aux portes de Sarajevo, le 19 mai 1992.

El Consejo Ejecutivo de la Liga de Sociedades de la Cruz Roja y de la Media Luna Roja celebró su 23ª reunión en Ginebra, los días 20 y 21 de abril de 1989, presidida por el señor Mario Villarroel, presidente de la Liga.

En su alocución, el presidente expresó su esperanza de que el 70º aniversario de la fundación de la Liga y el «Gesto Humanitario» celebrado el mes de mayo en el marco del 125. ° aniversario del Movimiento incitarán a las Sociedades Nacionales a continuar el desarrollo del Movimiento con el mismo espíritu de paz que animó a sus fundadores.

Seguidamente, el secretario general, señor Pär Stenbäck, presentó un informe sobre las actividades de la Secretaría desde octubre de 1988, destacando las operaciones de socorro y el desarrollo de las Sociedades Nacionales.

The traditional annual press conference given by the President of the ICRC took place on 10 January 1985 at the headquarters of the Committee. It provided not only an opportunity to make the usual assessment of events in the year 1984 but, in particular, was the moment chosen by the ICRC to launch an “Appeal for a Humanitarian Mobilization”.

The oldest of the international conventions concerning the prohibition of the employment of certain weapons, that is to say deriving from that part of the law of war, sometimes known as the “law of The Hague”, to distinguish it from the “law of Geneva”, will be a hundred years old this month: the Declaration of St. Petersburg of November 29—December 11, 1868.

In its January 1973 issue, International Review published a short article on a humanitarian venture launched in Latin America over 150 years ago, when a treaty on rules of war was signed on 26 November 1820 by representatives of the Governments of Colombia and Spain, and led to the historic accolade between Simdn Bolivar and Pablo Morillo at Santa Ana the following day.

The Honourable Sergio Jaramillo Caro is the Colombian Vice-Minister of Defence. Mr Jaramillo Caro studied philosophy and philology at Trinity College, University of Toronto, and Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford. He has an M. Phil. in philosophy from Cambridge University and was a doctoral candidate in Greek at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He has been an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was in charge of diplomacy for peace (2000–1), and was political counsellor at the Colombian embassy in Paris (2001–2). He was also adviser for political and strategic affairs at the Ministry of Defence (2002–3) and drafted the policy of Democratic Security. From 2004 to 2006 he served as director of the Ideas for Peace Foundation in Bogotá.

En los últimos diez años se ha prestado cada vez más atención al fenómeno de las personas sin hogar y del hambre en Estados Unidos. A medida que la comunidad internacional se ha ido sensibilizando por lo que respecta al problema de los millones de personas hambrientas en el mundo, también los estadounidenses se han percatado de la presencia de esas personas en su propio territorio. Pocos (casi ninguno) de los organismos gubernamentales o privados puede hoy ignorar o dejar de tener en cuenta, al organizar sus servicios, las necesidades de las personas que carecen de hogar y que padecen hambre.

Dans deux précédentes études sur les Conventions de La Haye, nous avions eu l'occasion d'examiner l'applicabilité à la guerre actuelle:

d'une part des Conventions de La Haye de 1899 (no III) et de 1907 (no X) étendant à la guerre maritime les principes de la Convention de Genève — cela à propos de navires-hôpitaux,

d'autre part, des Conventions de La Haye de 1899 (no II) et de 1907 (no IV), concernant les lois et coutumes de la guerre sur terre — cela d'une manière générale et en vue de l'observation, par les belligérants, les uns envers les autres, des prescriptions de ces conventions.