Preventive Diplomacy ─ Stopping Wars Before They Start

The suppression of war has been the primary objective of the United Nations for almost fifty years, and stopping a war before it starts is easier than ending a war already underway. History, however, has shown that military interventions and economic sanctions often do more harm than good. In Preventive Diplomacy, Nobel prize winners, top officials, and revered thinkers tackle these issues and explore the process of conflict prevention from humanitarian, economic, and political perspectives. This cross-disciplinary reader on global politics demonstrates that when new insights and methodologies on public health are applied to the handling of international disasters, the change in policy perspective is intriguing--even hopeful.

Kevin M. Cahill is president and director of the Center for International Health and Cooperation in New York City. He also serves as director of the Tropical Disease Center at Lenox Hill Hospital and runs the joint degree program with CUNY for their International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance. He is also the author of A Framework for Survival (1999) and the forthcoming Clearing the Fields.