War and Law since 1945

Civilization has long tried to limit the violence and cruelty of war. This important new book by a leading authority on ethics and war traces the recent history of these efforts, and explores key contemporary issues in this area. Best shows how the Second World War prompted reconstruction of international law, and charts the fortunes of its relations with war since then. He surveys the whole range of post-1945 armed conflict--high-tech international wars, wars of national liberation, revolutions, and civil wars--to offer an original and thought-provoking approach to contemporary history, law, politics, and ethics.