Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror

by Eric Stover, Victor Peskin, Alexa Koenig

Hiding in Plain Sight tells the story of the global effort to apprehend the world's most wanted fugitives. Beginning with the flight of an estimated thirty thousand Nazi war criminals after the Second World War, then moving on to the question of justice following the recent Balkan wars and the Rwandan genocide, and ending with the establishment of the International Criminal Court and America's pursuit of suspected terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, the book explores the range of diplomatic and military strategies--both successful and unsuccessful--that states and international courts have adopted to pursue and capture war crimes suspects. It is a story fraught with broken promises, backroom politics, ethical dilemmas, and daring escapades--all in the name of international justice and human rights. In this exhaustively researched and compelling written work of political and judicial history, the authors argue that while the legal and operational regimes needed to apprehend and deliver suspected war criminals to justice are largely in place, the political will on the part of states to make arrests happen in a consistent and apolitical manner remains elusive. And until this situation is rectified, murderers will get away with murder, and torturers will retire with pensions.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, War, Law, World War II

504 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2016

About the author

Eric Stover is Faculty Director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct Professor of Law and Public Health, University of California at Berkeley.

Stover has built the Human Rights Center into a premier interdisciplinary research and policy center that is highly regarded nationally and internationally. He is a pioneer in utilizing empirical research methods to address emerging issues in human rights and international humanitarian law.

Before coming to Berkeley in 1996, Stover served as the Executive Director of Physicians for Human Rights and the Director of the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has served on several forensic missions to investigate mass graves as an “Expert on Mission” to the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In the early 1990s, Stover conducted the first research on the social and medical consequences of land mines in Cambodia and other post-war countries. His research helped launch the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines, which received the Nobel Prize in 1997. He has published six books, including The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promises of Justice in The Hague and The Breaking of Bodies and Minds: Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions. He is a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Transitional Justice and Human Rights Quarterly and a board member of the Crimes of War Project.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally published at Book of Bogan

Some actions in war are so vile that humanity has decided that their perpetrators have committed against humanity as a whole, as well as the direct victims of those crimes. Examples like the Nazis and Japanese in World War 2, to the Balkans, Rwanda, and the modern war on terror. Hiding in Plain Sight examines the hunt for some of the most notorious of these criminals, and society's pursuit of justice... or non-pursuit, as the case may be.

Looking back at the events of history, one might imagine that it is as simple as locating the perpetrators of genocide, and other war crimes, and prosecuting them, but as history - and this book - reveals, not everything is quite that simple. After World War 2, some of the worst criminals were scooped up by either the Americans or the Russians, as they were deemed to have useful talents or knowledge. (Operation Paperclip) In the case of others, as time passed there simply was not the political will to continue the pursuit, outside of a few committed individuals.

I find the whole topic rather detestable, not simply because of the crimes themselves, but because of how society has failed to adequately respond. This book does not back down from pointing out the failings.

I was interested to see how the book would deal with the issue of America's actions after the attacks of 9/11. As someone who lived through that era, and was a part of the protests against the invasion of Iraq, one could not help but categorise those actions as aggressive warfare, and yet in the white-wash of history, nothing ultimately came of it. The book points out that - as the US is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court, and does not allow its soldiers to be prosecuted by the same - there is a serious lack of oversight for the sole remaining superpower.

While I found the book to be extremely well-researched, and very thorough, I did feel like it ultimately pulled some of its punches, in not pursuing some of the more modern stories as far as it might have. But perhaps that is symptomatic of society's attitude as a whole. We exist in a world of 24 hour news cycles, and even shorter outrage cycles.

Well worth a read. I received a review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

War is ugly, dehumanizing, cruel, and destructive in more than one sense. We know that terrible things will happen during war, but there are some acts that are so horrible that society calls for justice and revenge. After World War II, the Allies decided to put as many of the surviving Nazi high command as they could capture on trial for their crimes against humanity. Decades later, international tribunals would seek to indict, try, and sentence war criminals from the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Sudan. The real story of international justice is incredibly complex and, at times, distinctly unjust. In Hiding in Plain Sight: The Pursuit of War Criminals from Nuremberg to the War on Terror, authors Eric Stover, Victor Peskin, and K. Alexa Koenig explain how the path of justice never runs smoothly...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss for review consideration.

[Susan Csoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book. >>>>The first known international trial for war crimes took place in Breisach, Germany in 1474. It was a time when the Holy Roman Empire ruled.>>>The Crimean war of 1854.>>>1859 The battle of Solferino in northern Italy.>>>In 1863 the International Committee of the Red Cross was established.>>>1863 Abraham Lincoln authorized the war department to promulgate guidelines known as the Lieber code. >>>During the 1940*s and early 1950*s, thousands of trials of German and Japanese military and civilian officials accused of war time crimes were held throughout Europe and Asia.>>>And so much more. THANK YOU GOOD READS FIRST READS FOR THIS FREE BOOK!!!!!