New Releases by Michael Ignatieff

Since the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, human rights have become the dominant language of the public good around the globe. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Canada. The long-standing fights for aboriginal rights, the linguistic heritage of French-speaking Canadians, and same-sex marriage have steered the country into a full-blown “rights revolution” — one that is being watched carefully around the world. Are group rights jeopardizing individual rights? When everyone asserts his or her rights, what happens to collective responsibility? Can families survive and prosper when each member has rights? Is rights language empowering individuals while weakening community? These essays, taken from Michael Ignatieff''s famous Massey Lectures, addresses these questions and more, arguing passionately for the Canadian approach to rights that emphasizes deliberation rather than confrontation, compromise rather than violence. In a new afterword, the author explores Canada’s political achievements and distinctive stance on rights, and offers penetrating commentary on more recent world events.

"The Warrior''s Honour" is a profound and searching exploration of the troubled connection between the zones of safety and the zones of danger that configure the modern world. Reporting from places where ethnic conflict has become a way of life--from the West Bank to Bosnia, from Afghanistan to central Africa--Ignatieff brings astute analysis and insight to the complexity of the modern world. "Few have probed ethnic conflict more deeply than Michael Ignatieff ... "The Warrior''s Honour" combines superior reporting with provocative and troubling insights."-- "The New York Review of Books""""" "Ignatieff is a public intellectual at his journalistic best here, dedicating his academically trained mind to marshalling the facts, interpreting the world, and forcing us to care about horrors we might otherwise not see ... "The Warrior''s Honour" enlarges our understanding of the moral dilemmas of global society."-- "The Financial Post" "Ignatieff grounds his painful insights and liberal analysis in a penetrating assemblage of facts, voices, and pathos that is worthy of comparison with the literary reportage of Rebecca West, Edmund Wilson, and Janet Flanner."-- "The Boston Globe"""

Must we fight terrorism with terror, match assassination with assassination, and torture with torture? Must we sacrifice civil liberty to protect public safety? In the age of terrorism, the temptations of ruthlessness can be overwhelming. But we are pulled in the other direction too by the anxiety that a violent response to violence makes us morally indistinguishable from our enemies. There is perhaps no greater political challenge today than trying to win the war against terror without losing our democratic souls. Michael Ignatieff confronts this challenge head-on, with the combination of hard-headed idealism, historical sensitivity, and political judgment that has made him one of the most influential voices in international affairs today. Ignatieff argues that we must not shrink from the use of violence--that far from undermining liberal democracy, force can be necessary for its survival. But its use must be measured, not a program of torture and revenge. And we must not fool ourselves that whatever we do in the name of freedom and democracy is good. We may need to kill to fight the greater evil of terrorism, but we must never pretend that doing so is anything better than a lesser evil. In making this case, Ignatieff traces the modern history of terrorism and counter-terrorism, from the nihilists of Czarist Russia and the militias of Weimar Germany to the IRA and the unprecedented menace of Al Qaeda, with its suicidal agents bent on mass destruction. He shows how the most potent response to terror has been force, decisive and direct, but--just as important--restrained. The public scrutiny and political ethics that motivate restraint also give democracy its strongest weapon: the moral power to endure when the furies of vengeance and hatred are spent. The book is based on the Gifford Lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in 2003.

In his critically acclaimed "New York Times" Notable Book, the author of "The Needs of Strangers" delivers a profound meditation that explores war, guilt, and one man''s search for justice.

Charlie Johnson ist Kriegsjournalist. Während des Bürgerkriegs in Jugoslawien wird eine unschuldige Zivilistin brutal ermordet. Beim Versuch, die Frau zu retten, erleidet Charlie selbst schwere Verbrennungen und ein psychisches Trauma. Nach seiner Genesung nimmt er sich vor, in Zukunft ehrlich zu sich selbst zu sein: Er trennt sich von seiner Ehefrau, gibt seine Stelle auf und macht sich alleine auf die Suche nach dem Mörder der Frau. Spannender, in der Tradition der Moderne nüchtern und unspektakulär geschriebener, in die Tiefe gehender Roman von Michael Ignatieff (BA 12/89; 10/92; 1/95; 7/95): voller Aktualität, über Kriege, Brutalität und Kaltblütigkeit in der Welt, wobei der Schwerpunkt darauf liegt, wie man selbst damit umgeht sowie mit der ungelösten Frage des "Warum". Sehr zu empfehlen.

In Empire Lite, Michael Ignatieff explores both sides of what he sees as a new global empire - the imperial and the humanitarian - and argues that the international community has failed to engage intelligently with the problems of nation building in the aftermath of apocalyptic events. The collapse of political order around the world is now seen as a major threat, and a new international order is emerging, one that is crafted to suit American imperial objectives. This presents humanitarian agencies with the dilemma of how to keep their programs from being suborned to imperial interests. Yet they know that it was American air-power that made an uneasy peace and humanitarian reconstruction possible, first in Bosnia, then in Kosovo, and finally in Afghanistan. This is the new world of geopolitics we live in and must try to grasp. The vivid, cogent essays in this book attempt to understand the phenomenon of state collapse and state failure in the world''s zones of danger and the gradual emergence of an American led humanitarian empire. Focussing on nation building in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan, Ignatieff reveals how American military power, European money and humanitarian motive have combined to produce a form of imperial rule for a post-imperial age. Drawing on his own experiences of war zones, and with an extraordinary account of life in Afghanistan, Ignatieff identifies the illusions that make a genuine act of solidarity so difficult and asks what can be done to help people in war-torn societies enjoy the essential right to rule themselves.

Michael Ignatieff se apoya en su gran experiencia como escritor y comentarista sobre asuntos internacionales para presentar un lucido resumen de los exitos, fracasos y perspectivas de la revolucion de los derechos humanos. Desde que las Naciones Unidas adoptaron la Declaracion Universal de los Derechos Humanos en 1948, esta revolucion ha aportado un gran progreso moral al mundo entero y ha roto el monopolio sobre la conduccion de los asuntos internacionales que ostentaba el Estado-nacion. No obstante, tambien ha debido afrontar algunos retos. Ignatieff sostiene que los activistas humanitarios merecen las criticas recibidas desde Asia, el mundo islamico y el propio Occidente por ser demasiado ambiciosos y no estar dispuestos a aceptar ninguna limitacion. Ya es hora, escribe, de que adopten una actitud mas modesta y restablezcan el equilibrio entre los derechos de los Estados y los derechos de los ciudadanos.Ignatieff empieza examinando la politica de los derechos humanos y analizando cuando es adecuado esgrimir las violaciones de los derechos humanos para justificar la intervencion en otros paises. Posteriormente estudia las ideas que sustentan los derechos humanos, advirtiendonos de que estos no deben ser idolatrados. Siguiendo a Isaiah Berlin, argumenta que los derechos humanos solo pueden recabar un apoyo universal si su funcion consiste unicamente en proteger y mejorar la capacidad de los individuos para llevar las vidas que desean. Ignatieff concluye que Occidente tendra mayores oportunidades de ampliar los progresos reales de los ultimos cincuenta anos si defiende esta postura y admite que la soberania estatal es la mejor garantia frente al caos.A lo largo del libro, Ignatieffcombina el idealismo con el sentido practico adquirido durante los anos que ha pasado viaja

En mayo de 1999, en el vasto campamento que se extendió de la noche a la mañana bajo los cielos de Macedonia, la petición desesperada que se podía escuchar por doquier no hacía referencia a la comida o al agua, sino a los teléfonos móviles, necesarios para localizar a los hijos, a los maridos o a los padres perdidos en el caos de Kosovo. De las llamadas telefónicas vía satélite a los misiles guiados por láser, se trataba de una guerra de finales del siglo XX, en la que imperaba la tecnología. En las guerras «reales» se movilizan naciones enteras, los soldados combaten y mueren y se producen victorias. En la guerra virtual, puede que ni siquiera se declaren hostilidades. Los combatientes son pilotos de caza y programas de ordenador, la nación es la audiencia televisiva y en lugar de victoria sólo existe un final incierto. Kosovo fue una guerra virtual: allí combatieron pilotos a 5.000 metros de altura, fue dirigida por generales que contemplaban la batalla únicamente a través de la perspectiva de sus pilotos, y nos fue narrada por medios de comunicación rivales que proporcionaban versiones distintas de las consecuencias: una guerra en la que combatieron los estadounidenses y las fuerzas de la OTAN pero sólo murieron los serbios y los kosovares. Michael Ignatieff ha recorrido las zonas en las que se desarrolló el conflicto durante una década, realizando emotivos reportajes y llevando a cabo lúcidos análisis. Pero Kosovo supuso un cambio cualitativo en la historia de las agresiones armadas, y en Guerra virtual Ignatieff examina este extraño tipo de guerra a través de los ojos de los actores principales –el diplomático Richard Holbrooke, el general Wesley Clark y Louise Arbour, fiscal jefe del Tribunal para los Crímenes de Guerra– y de las personas que la sufrieron. El resultado es un libro penetrante y profundo que plantea cuestiones fundamentales sobre la guerra y los valores humanos en los albores de un nuevo siglo.

This thought provoking book uncovers a crisis in the political imagination, a wide-spread failure to provide the passionate sense of community "in which our need for belonging can be met." Seeking the answers to fundamental questions, Michael Ignatieff writes vividly both about ideas and about the people who tried to live by them—from Augustine to Bosch, from Rosseau to Simone Weil. Incisive and moving,The Needs of Strangers returns philosophy to its proper place, as a guide to the art of being human.

Winner of the Royal Society of Literature Award In The Russian Album, Michael Ignatieff chronicles five generations of his Russian family, beginning in 1815. Drawing on family diaries, on the contemplation of intriguing photographs in an old family album, and on stories passed down from father to son, he comes to terms with the meaning of his family''s memories and histories. Focusing on his grandparents, Count Paul Ignatieff and Princess Natasha Mestchersky, he recreates their lives before, during, and after the Russian Revolution.

Michael Ignatieff draws on his extensive experience as a writer and commentator on world affairs to present a penetrating account of the successes, failures, and prospects of the human rights revolution. Based on the Tanner Lectures that Ignatieff delivered at Princeton University''s Center for Human Values in 2000.