Prisoners in War

by Sibylle Scheipers

Overview

The issue of prisoners in war is a highly timely topic that has received much attention from both scholars and practitioners since the start of the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ensuing legal and political problems concerning detainees in those conflicts. This book analyzes these contemporary problems and challenges against the background of their historical development. It provides a multidisciplinary yet highly coherent perspective on the historical trajectory of legal and ethical norms in this field by integrating the historical analysis of war with a study of the emergence of the modern legal regime of prisoners in war. In doing so, it provides the first comprehensive study of prisoners, detainees and internees in war, covering a broad range of both regular and irregular wars from the crusades to contemporary counterinsurgency campaigns.

The book revolves around two major developments: First, there has been a continuous increase in the political relevance of prisoners in war, in particular since the emergence of POW camps in the nineteenth century. Secondly, and related, the growth in the legal regime pertaining to prisoners had contradictory consequences. Whilst it enhanced the protection of prisoners in regular conflicts, its state-centric bias tends to exclude combatants who do not fit the template of regular inter-state war. Detainees in the 'war on terror' embody both tendencies, the development of which, however, is by no means a novel phenomenon.

This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199577576
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/02/2010
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Sibylle Scheipers is the Director of Studies of the Changing Character of War Program at Oxford University.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Prisoners in War, Sibylle Scheipers
Part I: The Emergence of Legal and Ethical Standards Before the Second World War
2. A Cautionary Tale from the Crusades? War and Prisoners in Conditions of Normative Incommensurability, Frederic Megret
3. Prisoners in Early Modern European Warfare, Peter H. Wilson
4. Prisoners of War in International Law: The Nineteenth Century, Stephen C. Neff
5. Prisoners in The First World War, Alan Kramer
6. The 1929 Prisoners of War Convention and the Building of the Inter-War Prisoner of War Regime, Neville Wylie
Part II: Prisoners in Regular Conflicts—The Second World War
7. The Treatment of Prisoners of War In The Western European Theatre of War 1939-1945, Bob Moore
8. The Treatment of Prisoners of War In The Eastern European Theatre of Operations 1941-1956, Rudiger Overmans
9. Japanese Culture and The Treatment of Prisoners of War In The Asian-Pacific War, Philip Towle
Part III: Detainees in Irregular Conflicts
10. Prisoners in Colonial Warfare: The Imperial German Example, Isabel V. Hull
11. The French in Algeria: Can There Be Prisoners of War In A 'Domestic' Operation?, Raphaelle Branche
12. Detention and Interrogation In Northern Ireland 1969-1975, Huw Bennett
13. The Status and Treatment of Detainees in Russia's Chechen Campaigns, Bettina Renz
Part IV: Contemporary Problems and Challenges
14. Private Military Personnel as Prisoners Of War, Chia Lehnardt
15. Child Prisoners in War, Matthew Happold
16. Legal Issues Related To Armed Conflict with Non-State Groups, John B. Bellinger III
17. Detainees: Misfits in Peace And War, Adam Roberts
18. Outsourcing Terror: Extraordinary Rendition and The Necessity For Extraterritorial Protection of Human Rights, David Cole
19. Terrorist Beheadings: Politics and Reciprocity, Alia Brahimi
20. Conclusion: Prisoners and Detainees in Current and Future Military Operations, Sibylle Scheipers
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A tightly edited collection...Excellent transdisciplinary, transnational scholarship. Clearly written...Highly recommended."—CHOICE

From the Publisher