Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals

Honorable Mention for the 2000 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Government and Political Science, Association of American Publishers
"Why war-crimes tribunals? In this dense and compelling account, which examines trials from St. Helena to The Hague, Bass, a professor at Princeton, makes a realist's case for idealism and a pessimist's case for perseverance."--The New Yorker

"[C]ompelling. . . . [A] timely and exhaustive survey of how political leaders have wrestled with the problem of war criminals since 1815. . . . Bass . . . argues convincingly that trying war criminals is a better option than its alternative: revenge. . . . [An] important reminder . . . that . . . governments, including our own, must keep step by prosecuting war criminals."--Chuck Sudetic, The New York Times Book Review

"One of the most valuable books to appear about doing justice. . ."--Aryeh Neier, New York Review of Books

"[An] impressive scholarly work. . . . Balanced and thorough. . . . "--Publishers Weekly

"[A]n intriguing tale, and one told with flair by Gary Jonathan Bass. . . . Mr Bass's book could not be better timed. . . . Mr Bass's compelling account of earlier attempts to apply law in the aftermath of armed conflicts offers a useful historical setting for the current debates about a permanent court. . . . [I]nternational legalism, after a century of the failures and false starts recounted so well by Mr Bass, may after all be about to come of age."--David Manasian, The Economist

"[A] major new study of the history of these tribunals. . . . [F]ascinating. . . . [A] masterly study of the international politicking surrounding the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. . . . Written with enviable lightness of touch, but fortified with a mass of serious scholarship in the notes, this is a model study of a complex subject. Its . . . argument is dispassionately made, and highly persuasive. A copy of this book should be sent forthwith to Mr Kostunica in Belgrade."--Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph

"The best work yet on the politics of justice after war. This historically rich, theoretically informed study explores both celebrated and little known chapters in history, from St. Helena to The Hague."--G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"[An] invaluable book."--Barry Gewen, The American Interest

"[An] impressive book. . . The author, using a wide range of original archive sources and covering some material about which little has been written about in the past, examines in a meticulous, scholarly fashion the approach the victors took towards Napoleon, the kaiser, the Turks after the First World War, and the Nazis."--Mark Allinson, History