Crimes of Peace

"Elegantly written, ethnographically and historically rich, Albahari's book poses new questions about national security and 'crimes of peace' and should be on the shelves of scholars studying state security, international migration, and human rights." ~International Migration Review

"Indispensable. . . . [Albahari's] descriptive skill, his empathy with individual suffering, and his recognition of local acts of generosity are complemented by a disciplined attention to human rights, secular and Christian humanitarianism, maritime law, statecraft and transnational crime." ~Times Literary Supplement

"Building on existential experience, Albahari presents a profound reflection, articulated with elegance, on sovereignty as the duty to rescue (salvation) and sovereignty as the anticipation of risks (preemption), and therefore as bureaucratic classification of migrants: an impossible sovereignty, he says, between governing with the saved and governing with the dead." ~Cultures et Conflits

"Crimes of Peace is a valuable read for anyone interested in the very concept of Europe and of the rule of law. It powerfully addresses the uncomfortable question of how, between the state's monopoly of both violence and of rescue, European publics have as of yet abstained from, but could always start, to advance a sovereignty of responsibility." ~CritCom: A Forum for Research and Commentary on Europe

"This is a remarkable book-an intellectual treat that is also a political statement, a complex but compelling ethnography of state indifference, and a tribute to the humanity of those few who saw fit to show it when the agents of the state preferred to turn their backs. Written with precision and passion, it moves through personal encounters, media reports, legal documents, and eyewitness accounts to piece together the collective criminality of a state-and, indeed, a superstate, the European Union-that should be held accountable for the thousands of deaths and infinite suffering that should never have occurred, the deaths and suffering of those trying to reach a European haven and found it instead to be a vast, racially motivated, and largely oblivious gated community." ~Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University