Commissioned Book Review: Neve Gordon and Nicola Perugini, Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire
| Author | Mai Anh Nguyen |
| Date | 01 May 2022 |
| Published date | 01 May 2022 |
| DOI | 10.1177/14789299211013694 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2022, Vol. 20(2) NP15 –NP16
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1013694PSW0010.1177/14789299211013694Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2021
Commissioned Book Review
Human Shields: A History of People in the
Line of Fire by Neve Gordon and Nicola
Perugini. Oakland, CA: University of California
Press, 2020. 312 pp., £18.77, ISBN 9780520301849
In the past decades, wars have been character-
ised by a blurred distinction between combat-
ants and non-combatants, resulting in close
examination of categories which challenge
this binary. Seemingly contradictory terms
such as ‘child soldiers’, ‘militarised refugees’
and ‘human shields’ have been analysed by
academics and policymakers to confront ques-
tions of whose deaths count as ‘civilian’, ‘col-
lateral damage’ or ‘military necessity’. Human
Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire
provides a welcome addition to these debates.
This thought-provoking book traces the evolu-
tion of human shields who were used to deter
attacks on military targets. To do so, the book
draws on historical and legal accounts, illus-
trations and references to current academic
discussions on the ethics of violence.
The chapters of this book can be broadly
divided into two categories. Most chapters fall
into the first category, in which the reader is
invited to follow various military conflicts and
deployment of human shields. The chapters are
organised chronologically, each representing a
separate historical event. In these chapters,
Gordon and Perugini’s careful analysis pro-
vides a major contribution to the discussion of
the human shields: a clear historisation of the
phenomenon. The events chosen for this pur-
pose demonstrate how the reasons for using
human shields, their effectiveness and the pop-
ulations considered valuable enough to be
mobilised, depend on a variety of factors.
For example, Gordon and Perugini’s analy-
sis starts with the American Civil War, where
the strategy of human shielding was a spontane-
ous initiative but did not work as an effective
deterrent. By contrast, a few years later in the
Franco–German war, shielding became a stand-
ard policy employed by the German state army
against French irregular fighters because it suc-
cessfully discouraged the French from sabotag-
ing German supply lines. In both conflicts, only
those with high social status were considered
valuable enough to serve as shields. A century
later, accusations of human shielding focused
on women and children, often presenting it as
an act of ultimate viciousness and barbarity.
Covering 150 years of conflict, the book dem-
onstrates how international law struggled to
balance humanitarian protections with legitimi-
sation of military attacks.
Of particular interest is Gordon and
Perugini’s explanation of the flexibility of
human shields with regard to race. As they
argue, non-White people could not act as
shields during the Second Boer War, despite the
war occurring on South African soil – a phe-
nomenon closely linked to the status of black
South Africans as non-civilians. However, after
decolonisation wars, many non-White people
were mobilised as shields. It is here that the
authors offer an insightful critique of how inter-
national law is affected by issues of race; as ex-
colonised people were granted civilianhood,
accusations of human shielding became more
prominent specifically with regard to these pop-
ulations. In turn, such accusations resulted in
these civilians losing their newly gained protec-
tion, as they were now framed as legitimate tar-
gets of military attacks. This rise in accusations,
the authors argue, is not coincidental: it func-
tions as a justification for killing civilians in
former colonies.
The book’s second category of chapters dis-
cusses different dimensions of human shield-
ing. The authors include a variety of topics: the
increasing dehumanisation of the shielding fig-
ure as it went from specific high-ranking offic-
ers to whole urban populations; the importance
of spectacle and iconography; and the increas-
ing militarisation of civil protests. These chap-
ters are particularly valuable because they go
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