Reviews
David N. Gibbs
First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia
Vanderbilt University Press, 2009
David N. Gibbs, in his excellent book about the destruction of Yugoslavia, First Do No
Harm, offers a credible explanation [for US policy].
■ Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
Gibbs offers an important antidote to the self serving propaganda emanating from
Washington and allied capitals… First Do No Harm is a tour de force… [an] invaluable book.
■ Doug Bandow Washington Times
A serious, well written, and convincingly supported study on the reasons for Western and above
all the US intervention in the wars of the post-Yugoslav countries… The book is based on a
studious analysis of documents, the most convincing of which are the testimonies of witnesses at
the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia … When it comes to the behavior
of local actors (in Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries), Gibbs offers a far more
sophisticated portrait than is customary in Croatia. He does not excuse anybody… Gibbs’ book
is excellent, original, and compelling… [It] is recommended for all those who want a more
balanced and reasoned discussion.
■ Croatian Political Science Review (translated from the original Croatian)
Gibbs marshals an impressive array of sources to counter the explanations used to justify
Western involvement in Yugoslavia ... His contention that a relentless American drive for
hegemony was at the root of this disaster is open to debate… Yet Gibbs raises compelling
questions about the role of the West in Yugoslavia’s demise and future studies will have to
acknowledge the challenges he has posed.
■ Diplomatic History
[A] pioneering study... a powerful new interpretation of the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
■ Chalmers Johnson, author of the Blowback trilogy
An antidote to the humanitarian legend of the Kosovo war.
■ David Bromwich, Huffington Post
Gibbs shows that the NATO intervention against Yugoslavia was deliberately planned and
was not the answer to the ‘humanitarian catastrophe”…The book certainly shows a very
different picture than the simplified black and white, which has in the world and in Slovenia
so far prevailed.
■ Mladina (translated from the original Slovenian)
[A] provocative book.
■ Jim Hoagland, Washington Post
[First Do No Harm] stands out as one of the most intriguing accounts of the Western
intervention in the Balkans in the 1990s… an indispensable source on the Yugoslav crisis.
■ Perspectives: Central European Review of International Affairs
Overthrows the fading shibboleths of the Yugoslavian conflict.
■ Z Magazine
Though other critical writers have dealt with the problems of Western intervention in
Yugoslav civil wars, none has conducted so thorough and well documented an analysis as
Gibbs… Excellent and readable.
■ Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies
David N. Gibbs has written what is in many ways an admirable work… First Do No Harm
teems with fascinating and important information. The author has clearly spent an
enormous amount of time in research, unearthing a considerable array of data heretofore
not widely known. His analysis is well thought out and revealing, painting a devastating
picture of Western duplicity. This is an important work which anyone with an interest in how
diplomacy is actually conducted should read.
■ Science and Society
Amid the burgeoning literature on humanitarian intervention, David Gibbs’ book stands out
for its apt critique and the cogent questions he raises about the rationale for using military
force to try and remedy the world’s many human crises. Professor Gibbs makes strong
arguments and contentious and provocative claims, some of which I disagree with. Yet this
is a carefully reasoned and well sourced account of how the liberal or Wilsonian doctrine of
self-determination and non-intervention morphed into a license to intervene almost
anywhere. Gibbs has read very widely and uses the best sources available. Given the
hypocrisy of many arguments for humanitarian intervention, Gibbs’ central argument
should be taken to heart. First do no harm.
■ Bruce Cumings
Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History, University of Chicago
Also featured on C-SPAN’s Book TV series.
David N. Gibbs is Professor of History at the University of Arizona, in Tucson. He has
published extensively on Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, and US domestic politics.
He has also published extensively in academic journals, and many popular venues,
including Guardian, Los Angeles Times, and Christian Science Monitor. He has published
three books. His latest book project, now in progress is entitled Guns, Butter, and the
Politics of Permanent War: America at the End of the Cold War.