Humanitarian Imperialism
Jean Bricmont, Monthly Review Press, £12.99
Surprisingly, Jean Bricmont, the author of Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War, is a professor of theoretical physics. He became politically active in 1999 when Nato bombed former Yugoslavia. Bricmont was surprised by the lack of opposition to Nato's aggression, especially from the left.
His book is an attack on this left which has fallen for the argument of going to war for human rights. Bricmont looks at and deconstructs the use of "humanitarian interventionism" by the leading powers since the Cold War.