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How warfare has evolved – a humanitarian organization's perception: The case of the ICRC, 1863–1960

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Daniel Palmieri
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Extract

To understand how war is perceived and how it has evolved over time, we must first choose the right agent to study: one that is at once involved in the bellicosity, and yet keeps its distance. Such an agent will be better placed to maintain an objective and rational view of developments. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) would seem to fit the bill. As a humanitarian organization that has been working with the victims of armed conflict for more than 153 years, the ICRC has plenty of experience of war, yet it preserves its ability to interpret critically in its capacity as non-belligerent. It is therefore in a position to grasp the evolution of mankind's oldest activity over one and a half centuries – a period during which warfare has undergone incredible and deadly transformations in conjunction with technological breakthroughs and the rise of extremist political ideologies. On top of this, the ICRC was itself, in its early days, made up of people who had experienced war in one way or another. Of the five members who decided to found the organization in February 1863, three had personally experienced armed violence to varying degrees. This fact also made the nascent organization uniquely entitled to voice its views on a subject of which it had empirical experience.

Type
A century of warfare
Information
International Review of the Red Cross , Volume 97 , Issue 900: The evolution of warfare , December 2015 , pp. 985 - 998
Copyright
Copyright © icrc 2016 

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References

1 In addition to Henry Dunant (1828–1910), who instigated the Red Cross project after his traumatic experience of seeing wounded soldiers after the Battle of Solferino (24 June 1859), there was General Guillaume-Henri Dufour (1787–1875), Swiss army officer and engineer, then commander-in-chief of the Swiss federal army during the Sonderbund civil war (1847); and Louis Appia (1818–1898), who was a war surgeon during several armed conflicts, including the 1859 Italian War.

2 The research for this essay focused in particular on articles published in the Bulletin International des Sociétés de Secours aux Militaires Blessés (which became the Bulletin International des Sociétés de la Croix-Rouge (BISCR) and later the International Review of the Red Cross), on the reports of the International Conferences of the Red Cross, and on publications by ICRC members, especially Gustave Moynier (1826–1910), second president of the ICRC from 1864 to 1910.

3 BISCR, No. 1, October 1869, p. 3.

4 In the words of Louis Appia; “Rapport adressé au Comité international par M. le Docteur Appia sur sa mission auprès de l'Armée alliée dans le Schleswig”, Secours aux blessés: Communication du Comité international faisant suite au compte rendu de la Conférence internationale de Genève, Geneva, 1864, p. 144.

5 “Les dix premières années de la Croix-Rouge”, BISCR, No. 6, July 1873, p. 241 Google Scholar.

6 Ibid .

7 “Les causes du succès de la Croix-Rouge”, Mémorial des vingt-cinq premières années de la Croix-Rouge, 1863–1888, Geneva, 1888, p. 13.

8 Modelled on the Alabama tribunal of arbitration, held in Geneva in 1872.

9 “Les causes du succès de la Croix-Rouge”, above note 7, p. 16.

10 The BISCR devoted many articles to the perfecting of handguns, which were still the most commonly used weapons in war. One of the earliest examples of “humanitarian” bullets was mentioned in BISCR, No. 64, October 1885, pp. 151–152. Among the members of the ICRC, Dr Ferrière was the most reluctant to adopt this terminology; see, for example, his article “Les balles humanitaires”, BISCR, No. 154, April 1908, pp. 89–90 Google Scholar.

11 As proven in the articles that the BISCR published about developments noted in army medical reports that showed a drop in mortality rates among the wounded from one war to the next; see, for example, “Quelques rapports sanitaires à propos de la guerre sud-africaine”, BISCR, No. 124, October 1900, pp. 269–279 Google Scholar.

12 Switzerland was the country least likely to go to war, according to the ICRC: see “L'avenir de la Croix-Rouge”, BISCR, No. 50, April 1882, p. 81 Google Scholar.

13 Henry Dunant's candidature was, however, contested by one section of the peace movement. To soothe these tensions, the very first Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Henry Dunant and the French pacifist Frédéric Passy.

14 For the ICRC, this factor also contributed to a certain degree of commiseration towards soldiers who were nationals and not mercenaries; also on this topic, see ibid., p. 68; “Mémorial des vingt-cinq premières années de la Croix-Rouge”, BISCR, No. 76, October 1888, p. 151 Google Scholar.

15 The populations of Africa was the primary target of this criticism; see, for example, “La Croix-Rouge chez les nègres”, BISCR, No. 41, January 1880, p. 5 Google Scholar. Surprisingly, this stereotype of “uncivilized” peoples also applied to whites in Africa. Thus, the Boers – a population of Dutch origin whose ancestors emigrated to southern Africa in the seventeenth century – were called “semi barbarians” by the BISCR: see “Les insurrections dans l'Afrique austral”, BISCR, No. 46, April 1881, p. 53 Google Scholar.

16 At the risk of failing to give due consideration to the violations of IHL committed by Japan against a State like China, seen as less civilized: see “La guerre sino-japonaise et le droit international”, BISCR, No. 107, July 1896, p. 212 Google Scholar in particular.

17 On the ICRC's efforts to encourage the Japanese delegation that visited Switzerland, see “L'ambassade japonaise”, BISCR, No. 17, October 1873, p. 11–16 Google Scholar. Japan ratified the Geneva Convention and founded a Red Cross Society in 1887.

18 Siam (now Thailand) ratified the Geneva Convention in 1895 and at the same time set up a fledgling Red Cross society. The Siam Red Cross was recognized by the ICRC in 1920.

19 In 1865.

20 See the many accounts of atrocities by Turkish troops recounted in the BISCR, particularly during the Great Eastern Crisis (1875–78).

21 This change took place during the Russo-Turkish war of 1877–78.

22 Gustave Moynier was, moreover, Congo's consul-general in Switzerland from 1890 to 1904.

23 It is estimated that several million Africans died in Leopold's Congo as a consequence of colonial exploitation of the territory between 1888 and 1908; for figures, see: http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm (all internet references were accessed in December 2015).

24 “Les blessés de la bataille d'Omdurman”, BISCR, No. 117, January 1899, pp. 40–41 Google Scholar. While continuing to plead “attenuating circumstances”, the ICRC nevertheless gave a British war correspondent in Sudan an opportunity to speak out against what had happened: see “Les blessés de la bataille d'Omdurman”, BISCR, No. 118, April 1899, pp. 109–113 Google Scholar.

25 “We are restricting ourselves to addressing only the issue of the great struggles for power in Europe”: see Jean-François Pitteloud (ed.), Procès-verbaux des séances du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge, 17 février 1863–28 août 1914, Geneva, 1999, p. 20.

26 Ibid .

27 See “Les blessés espagnols”, BISCR, No. 19, April 1874, pp. 145–148 Google Scholar; and “Les blessés espagnols”, BISCR, No. 20, July 1874, pp. 194–197 Google Scholar.

28 “It is to be hoped that, in internal conflicts, the parties will draw on the charitable principles that have governed our work, and that they will at least agree on one shared idea: respect and care for the wounded”: “Les dix premières années de la Croix-Rouge”, BISCR, No. 16, July 1873, p. 235 Google Scholar.

29 See, for example, the articles “L'insurrection macédonienne”, BISCR, No. 136, October 1903, pp. 205–206 Google Scholar; and “Le Comité de Constantinople et les massacres arméniens”, BISCR, No. 159, July 1909, pp. 191–192 Google Scholar.

30 Resolution M of the Third International Conference, Geneva, 1884. The same Conference expressed the wish that antiseptic dressings be the norm in the medical services of all armies operating in the field, as well in National Red Cross Societies.

31 Fifth International Conference, Rome, 1892.

32 Sixth International Conference, Vienna, 1897.

33 First published in the BISCR, these appeals and protests were collected and published in a book at the end of the conflict: Actes du Comité international de la Croix-Rouge pendant la guerre 1914–1918, Geneva, 1918.

34 The efforts begun by the ICRC on this issue came to fruition with the adoption, in 1925, of the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or Other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare.

35 Daniel Palmieri (ed.), Les procès-verbaux de l'Agence internationale des prisonniers de guerre, 21 août 1914–11 novembre 1918, ICRC, Geneva, 2014, p. 235, available in French at: www.icrc.org/fre/resources/documents/publication/p4220.htm.

36 The reports of the delegates' visits during the First World War were published in Documents publiés à l'occasion de la Guerre, 24 series, Geneva, ICRC, March 1915–January 1920.

37 “An Armenian committee has appealed to us concerning the Armenian populations massacred by the Turks, with the undissimulated purpose of extermination”: BISCR, No. 184, October 1915, p. 438 Google Scholar.

38 “La protection des étrangers à Budapest”, BISCR, No. 202, 15 June 1919, p. 705 Google Scholar. Another category of new victims was refugees, particularly from Russia: “Appel du Comité international en faveur des réfugiées russes nécessiteux”, BISCR, No. 220, 15 December 1920 Google Scholar.

39 Gehri, Maurice, “La vie chère en Autriche”, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 22, 15 October 1920 Google Scholar.

40 Resolution V of the Tenth International Conference, Geneva, 1921.

41 Resolution XXIV of the Fifteenth International Conference, Tokyo, 1934.

42 Resolution IV of the Sixth International Conference, Vienna, 1897. Fifty years earlier, the ICRC had already proposed that an international criminal body be set up with the same purpose, also to no avail; see “Note sur la création d'une institution judiciaire internationale propre à prévenir et à réprimer les infractions à la Convention de Genève, par M. Gustave Moynier”, BISCR, No. 11, April 1872, pp. 122–131 Google Scholar.

43 Resolution 39 of the Fifteenth International Conference, Tokyo, 1934.

44 Resolution V of the Twelfth International Conference, Geneva, 1925.

45 See in particular the appeal for protection of civilians against bombing from the air, made in Resolution IX of the Sixteenth International Conference: Sixteenth International Red Cross Conference, London, June, 1938: Report, Geneva, 1938, p. 103.

46 “Appel concernant la protection de la population civile contre les bombardements aériens”, BISCR, No. 452, April 1940, pp. 321–327 Google Scholar.

47 Resolution XXIV (“Non-directed Weapons”) earnestly requested States to undertake to prohibit absolutely all recourse to atomic weapons in the event of war; Resolution LXIV (“The Red Cross and Peace”) reaffirmed the Red Cross's determination to work for enduring peace among nations. See Seventeenth International Red Cross Conference, Stockholm, August 1948: Report, Stockholm, 1952, pp. 94 and 102–103 respectively.

48 We could also ask whether the ICRC founders' erroneous belief that the scope of the 1864 Geneva Convention was based on reciprocity had been the start of their skewed perception of war.