Boyd van Dijk is a McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He taught previously at the London School of Economics, King's College London, Queen Mary, and the University of Amsterdam.
Preparing for War. The Making of the Geneva Conventions offers us a
thick historical contextualization of pressing issues.
*Silvia Steininger, Helga Molbæk-Steensig, European Journal of
International Law*
In sum, van Dijk's reverse-weaving provides us a much more nuanced
picture of not only what was included but also of what was excluded
from the fabric of the 1949 Conventions. It offers, I suggest, an
illustrative template of what contemporary international legal
history should look like as it brings together the lessons learned
from more than two decades of rich scholarship on the relationship
between comparative legal history, on the one hand, and politics,
the theory and history of international law, and imperialism, on
the other.
*DANIEL R. QUIROGA VILLAMARÍN, Doctoral Candidate and Researcher
based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development
Studies (Geneva, Switzerland)., The New Rambler*
The best legal history illuminates outcomes while resisting
celebratory or cynical determinism. Dr van Dijk's new history of
the Geneva Conventions and humanitarianism in war is a masterpiece
of methodological and conceptual sophistication. Through meticulous
archival research and critical analysis, van Dijk recovers a
multitude of voices and possibilities in the making of the law of
war we have, and the ways we might imagine its unrealized
potential.
*Prof. Naz K. Modirzadeh, Harvard University*
In Preparing for War, Boyd van Dijk provides a most welcome update
to the history of international humanitarian law. The hallmark of
this deeply researched analysis of the 1949 Geneva Conventions is
its simultaneous attention to politics and history. In exposing the
constant tension between politics and humanitarianism, van Dijk
reminds us of the perpetually unfinished nature of the project of
humanizing war.
*Prof. Tanisha M. Fazal, University of Minnesota*
Van Dijk's riveting book is the culmination of a decade of new
histories of international law, marking the arrival of professional
research methods and independent critical analysis to the study of
international law's most hallowed texts: the Geneva Conventions.
Van Dijk's account of the drafting of the Conventions reveals them
to be the products not merely of humanitarian ideals inspired by
the horrors of war, but also of fierce Cold War contests and
colonial rivalries. Highly recommended.
*Prof. John Fabian Witt, Yale University*
Nothing was inevitable in the drafting of the Geneva Conventions,
Boyd van Dijk argues in this important and exciting revisionist
work. The author's expansive multi-lingual archival research
enables him to reconceive this history by tracing the genealogy of
the drafting, revealing the Articles' contingency. Drafters had
directly experienced the brutality of total war, and this informed
their efforts to protect civilians. Women, like French resistance
fighter Andrée Jacob, played crucial roles. Cold War politics
mattered, but adversaries nevertheless collaborated on matters that
served their common interests. This outstanding work will influence
the next generation of writing on the Geneva Conventions.
*Prof. Mary Dudziak, Emory University*
Boyd van Dijk has written a superb political and legal history of
the making of the four Geneva Conventions.
*Dr. Hugo Slim, University of Oxford*
Preparing for War is a fascinating read. Dr Boyd van Dijk takes us
to the heart of the negotiations and lets us see into the minds of
the key players.
*Professor Andrew Clapham, Geneva Graduate Institute*
Van Dijk's book is excellent for exposing this dynamic in relation
to the geneva conventions and for unearthing some of the politics
behind those crucial treaties. Preparing for War is a compelling
read. It is powerfully written and offers us the richest and most
nuanced account of the negotiations leading to adoption of the
Geneva Conventions currently on offer.
*Professor Larissa van den Herik, The American Journal of
International Law*
Preparing for War - The Making of the Geneva Conventions is a book
no international humanitarian law scholar should miss. It is a
truly interdisciplinary piece of scholarship, which masterfully
handles history, political science and international law in telling
the story of the drafting and negotiation of the 1949 Geneva
Conventions.
*Dr Bianca Maganza, Geneva Graduate Institute*
Boyd van Dijk's Preparing for War offers a rich historical account
of the drafting process of the 1949 Geneva Conventions which goes
beyond the usual triumphalist rhetoric and uncovers the behind the
scenes strategies, struggles and coincidences.
*Professor Eyal Benvenisti, University of Cambridge*
Boyd van Dijk has done an invaluable job. He presents in detail the
diverse controversies and opposing opinions amongst different
states, whether in or outside the Western, Eastern, or 'Third
World' blocs, that arose during the discussion and writing of the
fourth Convention and rewriting the first, second and third. In
doing so he made his book a priceless contribution to the history
of humanitarianism, the laws of warfare, the Red Cross, and
international relations.
*Leo van Bergen, Medicine, Conflict and Survival*
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