International War Crimes Tribunals and the United States

In: Diplomatic history, Band 35, Heft 5, S. 769-786

Abstract

More than any other country, the United States of America has been a keen participant in the establishment of international criminal tribunals. But Washington's position has been a complex one, and it has changed from one of hostility to keen support in a seemingly cyclical manner. When an international tribunal was first proposed, at the Paris Peace Conference, the United States was opposed as a matter of principle. But Washington supported the post-Second World War prosecutions, by the international military tribunals at Nuremberg and Tokyo and, later, through a series of subsequent proceedings. When international justice revived, in the early 1990s, no other nation showed such enthusiasm for the ad hoc tribunals for the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. The United States also participated very actively in the establishment of the International Criminal Court (or ICC or Court). Then, when the vagaries of international negotiations resulted in an institution that was not entirely to Washington's liking, it took its distance from the permanent tribunal and, under the Bush administration, became openly hostile for a few years. By 2005, the United States had returned to a more benign attitude toward the International Criminal Court and, by 2010, it was a strong supporter. Adapted from the source document.