In this outstanding collection of new and previously published essays, one of the leading scholars of the international humanitarian order takes stock of developments that have been vastly consequential since the end of the Cold War. In developing his arguments Michael Barnett is intellectually incisive and politically astute. This book is required reading for all who are interested in the profound changes that have affected world politics during the last two decades.

Peter J. Katzenstein

Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies, Cornell University

Over the past fifteen years, Michael Barnett has emerged as the most thoughtful American scholarly voice on the dilemmas of humanitarianism. In these penetrating essays, he ranges widely, probing the role of political pragmatism and the impulse for moral transcendence in shaping contemporary humanitarianism.

Jack Snyder, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, Columbia University

Relying on personal experience and academic prudence, Barnett's collection does a wonderful job of interrogating the rise of the International Humanitarian Order. Always insightful but never losing balance and perspective, Barnett refreshingly focuses on the intermeshing of ethics and power and, in so doing, overcomes the one-sidedness of much of the thinking on this topic.

David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, University of Westminster

Barnett's breadth of expertise is complemented by his practical experience and he thus conveys an authoritative analysis that is surely unique in academic literature...this is a provocative, compelling and indeed inspiring book.

Aidan Hehir, University of Westminster, Political Studies Review, Vol 10:3, Sept. 2012

This volume provides us a vital opportunity to think and rethink ethically about how we understand and practice humanitarian activies, how we place ourselves in this 'living humanitariansim', and how we face our own moral duties in international relations.

Madoka Futamura, United Nations University