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The Warrior's Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern Conscience
Since the early 1990s, Michael Ignatieff has traveled the world's war zones, from Bosnia to the West Bank, from Afghanistan to central Africa. The Warrior's Honor is a report and a reflection on what he has seen in the places where ethnic war has become a way of life. Ignatieff charts the rise of the new moral interventionists--the relief workers, reporters, delegates, and diplomats who believe that other people's misery is of concern to us all. And he brings us face-to-face with the new ethnic warriors--the warlords, gunmen, and paramilitaries--who have escalated postmodern war to an unprecedented level of savagery. Hard-hitting and passionate, The Warrior's Honor is a profound and searching exploration of the perils and obligations of moral citizenship in a world scarred by war and genocide.
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Michael Ignatieff
75 books150 followersMichael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 18, 2021
At once a great philosophy book, history book, and character study. Ignatieff begins with a compelling look at the impact that television has had on the Western psyche in regards to war, and our capacity to understand it.
Television networks compete with each other much like businesses do. The effect of having to compete for news has a pernicious effect on its populace, namely that we believe that they are showing us information from around the world that we need to know, when in fact they are simply showing chaos after chaos in an effort to boost ratings, without explaining how to alleviate the larger moral, economic, or historical chasms between us and the people on our screens.
Some great stuff in later chapters about truth and reconciliation for countries who have committed war crimes, and how it bring people closer to a shared version of the truth, despite not being able to "fix" any political issues.
Television networks compete with each other much like businesses do. The effect of having to compete for news has a pernicious effect on its populace, namely that we believe that they are showing us information from around the world that we need to know, when in fact they are simply showing chaos after chaos in an effort to boost ratings, without explaining how to alleviate the larger moral, economic, or historical chasms between us and the people on our screens.
Some great stuff in later chapters about truth and reconciliation for countries who have committed war crimes, and how it bring people closer to a shared version of the truth, despite not being able to "fix" any political issues.
November 17, 2021
Really enjoyed this one. Lots of introspective thoughts on the morals of ethnicity and war, how narcissism plays into our views of ethnic war, and how it might be possible to ever reconcile, nation to nation, and nation to its people, the atrocities committed in times of war. I also really enjoyed the chapter on the ethics of television. Really makes you think about how media plays a role in war and ethnic genocide.
June 3, 2017
Complexs. Bosnia, Croatia, Angola, Afghanistan, Somalia, Ireland, South Africa - even Russia and Chile. This is not simple. The issues of United Nations and International Red Cross are tabled as are their missions and attempts at peace keeping, helping wounded - trying to remain neutral and not seeking justice either. Imperialism, democratization, nationalism and universalism are looked at from the perspective of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of darkness" finding lots of particularisms remaining, markers of identity way beyond confession, race, morals, language, property and gender.
He uses Hans Magnus Enzenberger's "autism" as "the pathology of groups so enclosed in their own circle of selfrighteous victomhood, or so locked into their own myths or rituals of violcence, that they can't listen, can't hear, can't learn from anybody outsidem themselves." Sound familiar, doesn't it? He continues these train of thought: "The proposition that listening to strangers is worthless, since no one can actually understand you but your own group. What is denied is the possibility of emphathy: that human understanding is capable of penetrating the bell jars of separate identities... difference is always minor, comprehension is always possible." (60) Well, in my world that goes a long way to discredit the ideology of "apartheid" and underpins very much the value and worth of Seminary training projects even as foreigeners become colleagues, citizens, household members, friends and family.
Still there are numerous critical voices. The question "Will it work?" is answered ambiguously: "We are only the doctors. If the patient won't take the medicine, what can we do?" Well, the metaphor is not quite accurate. "These patients aren't refusing the medicine. They are setting fire to the clinic... I see a jungle, kept at bay by desperate improvisation." (88)
Consider the theme of "moral disgust": "It would be too much to say that Conrad's 'Exterminate all the brutes' is now the unavowed conclusion that many draw from Western failures. But many are already tempted by the related thought, "Let the brutes exterminate themselves." (96) One of the temptations of disillusion is "blaming the victim" - especially if he/she is considered to be partly to be blamed.
Finally "the chief threat to international security in the post-Cold War world is the collapse of states, and the resulting collapse of the capacity of the civilian populations to feed and protect themselves... In a world in which nations once capable of imperial burden are no longer willing to shoulder them, it is inevitable that many of the states created by decolonization should prove unequal to the task of maintaining civil order... We are now living with the consequences of the modern axiom that rule by strangers is worse than rule by your own; that it is better for people to govern themselves, even if they make a mess of it, that to be ruled by foreigners, even if these foreigners do a passable job." (105)
His ideas on revenge, reconciliation, responsibility, guilt and intergenerational vengeance are worth pondering further, but also the ideas on Islam, Taliban and Radicalism - both political and religio8us: "Political terror is tenacious because it is an ethical practice. It is a cult of the dead, a dire and absolute expression of respect." (188)
He uses Hans Magnus Enzenberger's "autism" as "the pathology of groups so enclosed in their own circle of selfrighteous victomhood, or so locked into their own myths or rituals of violcence, that they can't listen, can't hear, can't learn from anybody outsidem themselves." Sound familiar, doesn't it? He continues these train of thought: "The proposition that listening to strangers is worthless, since no one can actually understand you but your own group. What is denied is the possibility of emphathy: that human understanding is capable of penetrating the bell jars of separate identities... difference is always minor, comprehension is always possible." (60) Well, in my world that goes a long way to discredit the ideology of "apartheid" and underpins very much the value and worth of Seminary training projects even as foreigeners become colleagues, citizens, household members, friends and family.
Still there are numerous critical voices. The question "Will it work?" is answered ambiguously: "We are only the doctors. If the patient won't take the medicine, what can we do?" Well, the metaphor is not quite accurate. "These patients aren't refusing the medicine. They are setting fire to the clinic... I see a jungle, kept at bay by desperate improvisation." (88)
Consider the theme of "moral disgust": "It would be too much to say that Conrad's 'Exterminate all the brutes' is now the unavowed conclusion that many draw from Western failures. But many are already tempted by the related thought, "Let the brutes exterminate themselves." (96) One of the temptations of disillusion is "blaming the victim" - especially if he/she is considered to be partly to be blamed.
Finally "the chief threat to international security in the post-Cold War world is the collapse of states, and the resulting collapse of the capacity of the civilian populations to feed and protect themselves... In a world in which nations once capable of imperial burden are no longer willing to shoulder them, it is inevitable that many of the states created by decolonization should prove unequal to the task of maintaining civil order... We are now living with the consequences of the modern axiom that rule by strangers is worse than rule by your own; that it is better for people to govern themselves, even if they make a mess of it, that to be ruled by foreigners, even if these foreigners do a passable job." (105)
His ideas on revenge, reconciliation, responsibility, guilt and intergenerational vengeance are worth pondering further, but also the ideas on Islam, Taliban and Radicalism - both political and religio8us: "Political terror is tenacious because it is an ethical practice. It is a cult of the dead, a dire and absolute expression of respect." (188)
October 2, 2017
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. The essay Narcissism on Small Differences should be taught as a class in every University as an entry level class. Consider that we need more education around these types of things. We simply watch events unfold without any real idea of what is going on or why the conflict starts from such meaningless points.
December 29, 2024
Análisis sociopolítico de los conflictos bélicos en general. El autor realiza distintos planteamientos basados en vivencias en primera persona con claves y contradicciones para que reflexionemos a fin de aportar soluciones tras los crueles conflictos en busca de una paz en las distintas sociedades y situaciones, la cual se antoja extremadamente dificultosa
February 6, 2017
I truly believe that everyone should read this book and wake up, specially with everything that's happening lately in the world.
October 2, 2011
I really liked Ignatieff's ability to draw attention to a problem - political, moral, or otherwise - and then show enough restraint to avoid saying that a simple answer exists. He talks about the morals of war, of humanitarian intervention, and nationalism.
All in all, this was a good read, and a pretty good example of why his thinking is too nuanced and subtle for today's political environment.
All in all, this was a good read, and a pretty good example of why his thinking is too nuanced and subtle for today's political environment.
June 3, 2013
eye opening story of how tribal conflicts (creed, race, sports teams, politics - whatever) create a demonizing of others who may have once been neighbors and canonizing of the "white hats" that have come before us. This book enlightened me to the mythical nuances of liberalism and the futility of one justice being embraced by all.
One might think I would never wish such a shattering of a worldview on anyone, but I have to say it was enlightening and freeing.
One might think I would never wish such a shattering of a worldview on anyone, but I have to say it was enlightening and freeing.
September 12, 2016
Enjoyed it, good bus read. Learnt a lot about ethnic war
April 29, 2013
Amazing, eye opening to the world around you.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews