This book explains why accountability for atrocity crimes remains difficult when Western powers or their close allies are implicated. Moving beyond familiar critiques of double standards, the book locates the ‘Western accountability impasse’ within the structures of the Western-led global order and examines the conditions under which it can be challenged. It develops a framework for understanding why global accountability regimes ordinarily align with Western interests and the conditions under which they depart from that alignment.
The book traces patterns of geopolitical selectivity across international criminal tribunals. It zooms in on the International Criminal Court’s contrasting responses to alleged crimes involving British troops in Iraq, United States military and security personnel in Afghanistan and Israeli actors in Palestine. It further interrogates the prospects and limitations of national courts’ extraterritorial jurisdiction. The study explains how institutional dependence, political pressure and claims to Western exceptionalism constrain justice, while identifying openings created by competing pressures, divisions within the West and interactions across accountability regimes.
It concludes by setting out an agenda for more universal justice in a changing global order. The book will interest scholars, students and practitioners in international criminal law, accountability studies, human rights and international relations.
