The humanitarian conscience - W. R. Smyser

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 important 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 World War II 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 shaping the course of international events. This is a 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. It is also a call to arms at a time when humanitarian efforts are frequently missing or simply misguided.