The Humanitarian Conscience: Caring for Others in the Age of Terror

W. R. Smyser

Jun 2015 · Sold by St. Martin's Press

About this ebook

Humanitarian action, long dismissed as a realm apart from major foreign policy concerns, has become an omnipresent element in international affairs. It now shapes the world in which we live and it will have increasingly imporant impact on the way decisions are made in international crises. W.R. Smyser looks at the history of humanitarian activity and it's growth since the horrors of WWII were made public, tracing its early stages connected to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the present day when human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, are as influential as modern nation states in influencing the course of internation events. This is a monumental portrait of the way in which individuals who are not officially part of any government work to alleviate human suffering and physical destruction around the world.

About the author

W.R. Smyser is one of America's leading experts on Germany. He served in Munich with the U.S. Army, as well as in Berlin and Bonn with the U.S. State Department. He has written several books on German-American relations and a landmark work on the German economy. He visits Germany and Europe regularly, working with leading U.S. and European intellectual centers, and lectures on Germany and the European Union at Georgetown University.