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Title: Virtual War : Kosovo and Beyond by Michael Ignatieff ISBN: 0-312-27835-7 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 02 June, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.75 (8 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: An interesting series of essays
Comment: I bought this book a couple of years ago but did not get around to reading it until last week, shortly after the war in Iraq ended (more or less). I was curious to see what kind of perspective it would offer not only on the Kosovo campaign but on the war in Iraq. I found it both a useful refresher on a very different battle, the 79 day air campaign against Serbia, and an interesting meditation on modern war.
The front end of this book consists of a series of snapshots of different aspects of the war, along with a couple of arguments Ignatieff has with fellow intellectuals. Several reviewers on this site wrote that they couldn't see the connection between these bits of reportage with the latter half of the book, which is an extended essay on aspects of modern, "virtual" war. I think they're perhaps not trying very hard, as the longer essay quite obviously tackles in a disciplined fashion the themes raised in the reportage--international law, the revolution in military affairs, values, societal support or the lack thereof for political decisions to move toward war.
Ignatieff is often clear-thinking. It is a bit startling to read this book, written in 1999-2000, talking about the merits of regime change in places like Iraq and Serbia/FRY. He is likewise prophetic in noting how the revolution in military affairs created an incentive for the Saddams of the world to seek a countervailing military threat in the form of chemical and biological weapons.
Where he is perhaps a bit less far-sighted is in failing to see that the precedent of a "virtual war" in Kosovo--by which he means a zero-casualty, low-cost war (for the attacking side only, of course), that is not legitimised by international law or blessed by the kind of domestic support that must be whipped up to permit a high-cost, full mobilization "real war", with real casualties on both sides--could be used to support not only human rights' causes but narrower interests.
Overall this is a book well worth reading. I'd recommend it to anyone interested in understanding what goes into a modern war.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not sure what to make of this
Comment: Clearly Michael Ignatieff is a gifted writer, but the theme throughout this book did not string together that well. Ignatieff had some great insights into the diplomacy building up to the Kosovo air campaign (i.e. gaining valuable insight into Holbrooke's shuttle diplomacy), but some of the observations, particularly those in the last chapter beg questioning.
The repercussions of a zero casualty conflict will reverberate throughout the US defense establishment for years to come and will certainly set benchmarks, warranted or not for future conflicts. But sacrifice in battle will be supported by the American public if the situation warrants. The war in Afghanistan bears this point out to an extent.
The dialogue between Skidelsky and Ignatieff was interesting, as was the return of Ignatieff to Belgrade to meet his longtime friend Aleksa Djilas. This dialogue portrayed the extent to which people such as Skidelsky and Djilas would like to look past the atrocities committed by the like of Milosevic, at the expense of Western intervention.
I rated the book three stars only because I didnt see the common thread throughout the book...merely a series of collected essays that may or may not have had anything to do with the subject "virtual war". THe book does add some interesting insight into Holbrooke's dealings with Milosevic, but could have delved more into discussions with Gen Clark and perhaps Lt Gen Mike Short, the Joint Forces AIr Component Commander, on the extent the "virtual war" was or was not fought both on the battlefield, in the media and in the political realm.
Rating: 1
Summary: Changed his tone
Comment: The important question one has to ask before picking up this book is why anyone would feel confortable relying on the opinion of a commentator whose name was so closely associated with the word "appeasement" when war and genocide were raging in Bosnia. The fact that Ignatieff was one of the equivocators who had little to chose between Karadzic and Mladic and their victims will taint him the rest of his life.
Ironicaly, he is now advertised as a human rights scholar, albeit a human rights scholar who opposed intervation to stop the Serb sponsored genocide in Bosnia, which took 250,000 lives and culminated in the masacre of Srebrenica. Ignatieff now has the good sense to change his tone, even though Kosovo presents no stronger a case for intervention than Bosnia did. This is the overiding question that Ignatieff does not answer. Why does he now support intervention within the sovereignty of a state, and yet opposed it when Bosnia was attacked in a trans-state conflict? The answer is clear, he has realized the error of his ways, a matter that Ignatieff should have the courage the face up to. It would make for an interesting book or article: the well meaning, often Serb biased Yugoslav experts who, when confronted with the worst human rights abuses seen in Europe since the Second World War, fumbled the ball miserably.
Overall, not a very engaging book, from a discredited personality, who failed the Bosnians miserably.
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Title: The Warrior's Honor : Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience by Michael Ignatieff ISBN: 0805055193 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: 15 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Blood and Belonging : Journeys into the New Nationalism by Michael Ignatieff ISBN: 0374524483 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 30 September, 1995 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: "A Problem from Hell" : America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power ISBN: 0060541644 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 06 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: The Needs of Strangers by Michael Ignatieff ISBN: 0312281803 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 02 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) by Peter Andreas ISBN: 0801487560 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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