Red Cross Interventions in Weapons Control

This book explores how the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), a leading humanitarian actor, addresses the problem of weapons. A triangulation of strategies such as testimonialization, medicalization and legalization, are investigated, with the help of critical security studies literature, to cultivate an understanding of an effects based approach to weapons. The attempt here is not only to introduce some innovative, conceptual tools but also to provide a coherent and critical narrative of the experiences of the ICRC vis-à-vis states to regulate and prohibit weapons. This experiential account of the ICRC’s engagement with the problem of weapons is significant as it produces an empowering, alternative discourse making visible subjugated knowledge in the field of arms control and disarmament.

Ritu Mathur’s path breaking book shows how humanitarianism changed as it moved to center stage. Some of the most fundamental assumptions behind disarmament remain poorly appreciated and rarely acknowledged. After reading Red Cross Interventions in Weapons Control, it is impossible to take those assumptions for granted. There is nothing sacred in this, the most innovative and persuasive re-telling of the disarmament experience. Every student of humanitarianism and disarmament should pay attention., Mathur provides us with one of the most comprehensive analyses of the humanitarian approach to disarmament and arms control, which has sought to place moral concerns and the voices of those most affected by violence at the center of global conversations about security. This in-depth and longitudinal study of the International Committee of the Red Cross illuminates the politics of pathos, as it is deployed by those seeking to mitigate the harm of indiscriminate violence. Mathur is careful to examine over-heated claims of the transformative potential of humanitarian disarmament, offering a sympathetic critique. This book will be a crucial resource for activists and advocates, as well as scholars of international relations and critical security studies., Besides its activities on the ground to protect and assist the victims of armed conflicts and its work to develop, promote, and implement international humanitarian law, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has played an important role to incite States to ban or to limit the use of indiscriminate or particularly cruel weapons. In this excellent book, Ritu Mathur gives not only a very complete picture of this lesser known role of the ICRC, but also a brilliant and in-depth analysis of this activity, which is not only complex on the technical plane, but also delicate at the political and diplomatic level.

Ritu Mathur is assistant professor at University of Texas at San Antonio.