The Peacemaker’s Paradox: Pursuing Justice in the Shadow of Conflict

Expanding from her path-breaking work in Unspeakable Truths, Priscilla Hayner focuses on a new challenge in The Peacemaker’s Paradox: the age-old problem of negotiating peace after a war of atrocities. Drawing on her first-hand involvement in peace processes and interviews from the frontlines of peace talks, the author recounts many heretofore-untold stories of how justice has been negotiated, with great difficulty, and what this tells us for the future. Those with the most power to stop a war are the least likely to submit to justice for their crimes, but the demand for justice only grows louder. She also asks how the intervention of an international tribunal, such as the International Criminal Court, changes how a war is fought and the possibility of brokering peace. The Peacemaker’s Paradox looks far and wide, from Gaddafi’s Libya to the FARC talks in Colombia, to provide an unparalleled exploration of these thorniest of issues.

A combination of interview-based reporting and political analysis, The Peacemaker’s Paradox brings clarity to a field fraught with both legal and practical difficulties.