Description
About the Author
Hugo Slim is one of the world's leading commentators on international humanitarian action and the protection of civilians in war. He is a powerful communicator and much in demand as a public lecturer and an adviser to many of the world's largest humanitarian agencies.A British citizen, born in 1961, Hugo worked for several years as a frontline humanitarian worker in the Horn of Africa, the Palestinian Territories and Bangladesh for Save the Children UK and the United Nations throughout the 1980s. He then co-founded an award-winning humanitarian Masters programme at Oxford Brookes University which he led for ten years between 1994-2004.Hugo is currently Chief Scholar at the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, a respected Swiss conflict resolution organization that mediates in civil wars and provides high-level political and humanitarian advice on peace processes. Hugo leads HD Centre's work on the protection of civilians in war and has overseen the publication and dissemination of three leading manuals on the subject since 2004.Educated in Theology at Oxford University, Hugo received his PhD in humanitarian ethics from Oxford Brookes University. Between 1998 and 2004, he was on the Council of Oxfam GB and an International Adviser to the British Red Cross. While an academic he also acted as a consultant and trainer to several of the world's leading humanitarian agencies, including: The International Committee of the Red Cross; the United Nations; World Vision; Save the Children; Norwegian Church Aid and OXFAM.Hugo is one of the most original and widely read of all humanitarian scholars. He is particularly valued for his accessible style, his humour and his clarity. In a relatively short academic career, he has published more than 35 journal papers, 12 book chapters and numerous consultancy reports for operational humanitarian agencies. In 2005, he published Protection: A Guide for Humanitarian Agencies (ALNAP and OXFAM). This is the first professional guide to civilian protection for aid agencies and has sold over 4000 copies worldwide. A core text for all agency training, it has been translated into Spanish and Arabic. Killing Civilians is the result of three years work which has included research visits to war zones in Liberia, Northern Uganda, Israel and Palestine. The Canadian Government and HD Centre funded this work and are also intent on supporting lecture tours and wider dissemination of the book. Hugo is married to the British writer and journalist, Rebecca Abrams, and has two children. He is the grandson of one of Britain's most famous Second World War generals, Field Marshal Bill Slim, whose XIV Army defeated the Japanese in Burma.
Reviews
'This is a clear, impartial, honest work. It is scholarly yet free of jargon, compassionate yet not over-emotional, moral without being preachy, stuffed with facts and figures, yet brought alive by a myriad of vivid historical, contemporary and personal anecdotes. In short, it is very good.' * The Economist *
''Subjective violence', a la Zizek, is too flimsy a name for what Hugo Slim documents in this study, skilfully weaving history and psychology together with a sense of contemporary mission. Slim cites shocking eyewitness reports of murder and torture of civilians from wars around the world, tallying the way in which killers come to kill, and the excuses that governments make for them. The question is: can we do anything about it? Slim sees that mere appeals to international law carry little persuasive power where it counts, and suggests that we recast the argument as one about unfairness and cowardice, with a positive appeal to mercy. As an attempt to unravel one corner of the tapestry of symbolic violence hung over the reality of war, it might be a start.' * The Guardian *
'As Slim's very readable and instructive book makes clear, the conflicts of the last century have been marked by a spirit of complete indifference to the sufferings of civilians.' * Caroline Moorhead, The Literary Review *
'An excellent book. ... I recommend it to the practitioner, political, humanitarian and military, and in equal measure to the general public in whose name they act.' * General Sir Rupert Smith, KCB, DSO, OBE, QGM, author, The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World *
Book Information
ISBN 9781850659143
Author Hugo Slim
Format Paperback
Page Count 300
Imprint C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd
Publisher C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd