Miriam Bradley. 2016. Protecting civilians in war: The ICRC, UNHCR, and their limitations in internal armed conflicts (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Excerpt

The protection of civilians has been an increasing focus of humanitarian, peacekeeping, and human rights organizations since the mid-1990s. The term protection, however, remains ambiguous, and is interpreted differently by different organizations, which address it in divergent ways. Miriam Bradley’s Protecting Civilians in War explores this divergence by comparing the history of protection policy and practice in two organizations: the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This impressively researched and well-written book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the development of, and variation in, the ways humanitarian organizations understand and approach protection of civilians in violent contexts. The book also contributes to the broader theoretical literature investigating ways in which international organizations (IOs) exercise autonomous influence in world politics. …