The best legal history illuminates outcomes while resisting celebratory or cynical determinism. Dr van Dijk's new history of the Geneva Conventions and humanitarianism in war is a masterpiece of methodological and conceptual sophistication. Through meticulous archival research and critical analysis, van Dijk recovers a multitude of voices and possibilities in the making of the law of war we have, and the ways we might imagine its unrealized potential. ? Prof. Naz K. Modirzadeh, Harvard University

In Preparing for War, Boyd van Dijk provides a most welcome update to the history of international humanitarian law. The hallmark of this deeply researched analysis of the 1949 Geneva Conventions is its simultaneous attention to politics and history. In exposing the constant tension between politics and humanitarianism, van Dijk reminds us of the perpetually unfinished nature of the project of humanizing war. ? Prof. Tanisha M. Fazal, University of Minnesota

Van Dijk's riveting book is the culmination of a decade of new histories of international law, marking the arrival of professional research methods and independent critical analysis to the study of international law's most hallowed texts: the Geneva Conventions. Van Dijk's account of the drafting of the Conventions reveals them to be the products not merely of humanitarian ideals inspired by the horrors of war, but also of fierce Cold War contests and colonial rivalries. Highly recommended. ? Prof. John Fabian Witt, Yale University

Nothing was inevitable in the drafting of the Geneva Conventions, Boyd van Dijk argues in this important and exciting revisionist work. The author's expansive multi-lingual archival research enables him to reconceive this history by tracing the genealogy of the drafting, revealing the Articles' contingency. Drafters had directly experienced the brutality of total war, and this informed their efforts to protect civilians. Women, like French resistance fighter Andrée Jacob, played crucial roles. Cold War politics mattered, but adversaries nevertheless collaborated on matters that served their common interests. This outstanding work will influence the next generation of writing on the Geneva Conventions. ? Prof. Mary Dudziak, Emory University
Boyd van Dijk is a McKenzie Fellow at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He taught previously at the London School of Economics, King's College London, Queen Mary, and the University of Amsterdam.