BOOK
REVIEW
The cost of conflict: prevention and cure in the global arena
Edited by: Michael E. Brown & Richard N. Rosedecrance
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., Lanham, USA.
1999.
Price: CD$ 39.09 Pages: 275
Reviewer: Kofi Akosah-Sarpong
in Montreal, Canada
On the cover of this book is Ethiopian refugee women and children.
And the book itself looks at the cost and benefits of conflicts in the
global arena. The book is divided into four parts, spanning ‘Failed
Prevention’, ‘Initial Prevention’, ‘Mid-Course Prevention’,
and the Conclusion. There are nine tables including that of Rwanda and
Somalia. And a long list of acronyms The central aim of the authors is
to investigate the idea that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure’ in the context of deadly conflicts.
More specifically the authors try to "determine whether
conflict prevention makes sense in selfish cost-benefit terms to
neighboring states, regional powers, and the international community
in general." And as we saw in Liberia and Sierra Leone, the
authors ask whether conflict prevention is cost-effective from the
standpoint of outside parties?" The authors focus on cost
considerations since outside entities are key factors in motivating
intervention. But despite what outsiders say, these outside powers had
had afore information of impending trouble as we are beginning to know
in the case of the Rwandan genocide.