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Adrian M. Gallagher, Reply to Hugh Bayley MP: Review of Genocide and Its Threat to Contemporary International Order (New Security Challenges Series), Parliamentary Affairs, Volume 68, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 226–228, https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gst030
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Extract
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Hugh Bayley MP for taking time out of his very busy schedule to read, think about and comment on the argument put forward in my book, Genocide and Its Threat to Contemporary International Order (Gallagher, 2013). With that in mind, let me offer a respectful reply to the criticisms raised.
The first point of contention hinges on what the book set out to do, but also what it does not set out to do. Hugh correctly states that the book does not help the reader answer the question, how should the UK respond to genocide? Nor does it guide policy-makers, as he had hoped, in addressing questions such as, ‘How practical is it to intervene?’ or ‘What is the likelihood of successfully stopping the human rights abuses?’ In many ways, I understand such frustration completely, especially faced with a crisis, as in Syria, which has seen over 100,000 people killed. This leaves us crying out, ‘what should be done?’ However, the book never set out to answer such questions and at no point claims to.
