Conversations with History: Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley
This interview is part of the Institute's "Conversations with History" series, and uses Internet technology to share with the public Berkeley's distinction as a global forum for ideas.
Welcome to a Conversation with History.
I'm Harry Kreisler of the Institute of International Studies. Our guest today
is David Rieff, who's the author of five books, including Slaughterhouse:
Bosnia and Failure of the West, and most recently, A Bed for the Night:
Humanitarianism in Crisis. David continues to cover wars and humanitarianism in many parts of the world.
- Background ... influence of parents
... writing as the family business ... cosmopolitan upbringing ... education
... influence of Ivan Illich
- Being a Writer ... hardest part of
writing ... translation of experience ... frustration ... necessity of being
in the field ... creative process ... research ... travel diary ... write
up ... writer as critic
- Humanitarianism ... origins in the
Left ... idealism in era of reduced expectations ... transformation of humanitarianism
in the 1990s ... no more "faraway people" ... fig leaf for political
agendas ... cases of Bosnia and Kosovo
- Human Rights and Imperialist Intervention
... human rights movement vs. humanitarianism ... imperialism's roots in "altruism"
... leaning away from intervention ... notable exceptions: Rwanda and Bosnia
- Realism vs. Utopianism ... choosing
when to intervene ... utopianism of Bush administration ... millenarian fantasies
of both left and right ... domestic costs of the war on terrorism ... the
victors' debasement in war ... special moral problem of war on terrorism
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Photos by Jane Scherr. Site questions: Email iis_webmgr at berkeley.edu.
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