Brendon Simms, author of this revealing study, is Director of Studies in History at Peterhouse and lecturer in International Relations at the Centre for International Studies, Cambridge University. What he has to say is that, essentially, Britain's role in the Bosnian tragedy, was nothing short of being disastrous.

He has carried out dozens of interviews, trawled through the documents and come to the conclusion that Britain's political leaders were afflicted by a disabling form of conservative pessimism which not only rejected military intervention by Britain but prevented any other country intervening. Attitudes changed with the change of government by the time of Kosovo for, as the current, much wider crisis only too telling reminds us: isolationism is no longer an option. --Michael Hatfield.

Book Description
Between April 1992 and October 1995 a European country was destroyed. Tens of thousands of Bosnians were killed and millions of refugees had to flee their homes. As Milosevic comes to trial for war crimes we focus again on the war and on the world’s response to it. Could the international community have averted this tragedy, or at least have brought the Bosnian war to a speedier conclusion?

Yes, says Dr Brendan Simms, author of Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia. He argues that the British government bears responsibility for policies that led to the prolonging of the bloodiest European conflict since the Second World War. John Major, Malcolm Rifkind, and Douglas Hurd’s actions resulted in the upholding of the arms embargo which meant that weapons were denied to the legitimate government in Sarajevo. In 1993 Britain championed the Vance-Owen Peace Plan which, despite the best of intentions, only exacerbated the crisis, and blocked American proposals for air strikes. And even after the Srebrenica massacre in July 1995 the British government was against intervention. During the crisis, British troops were forced to stand by as Serb militias killed at will. Indeed at one stage the Bosnian Government threatened to charge Britain as an accomplice to genocide before the International Court of Justice.

Britain’s standing in the world was severely damaged, British/American relations reached a forty-year low, and all the while the lives of thousands of innocent people were shattered.

Who is to blame? Simms singles out for criticism Hurd, Rifkind, Major, Owen, and General Sir Michael Rose. But what of the rest of the British establishment? With a few noble exceptions, the Labour opposition offered no real opposition, the media offered little in the way of alternative viewpoints, and intellectuals and commentators wrote questionable analyses based on flimsy evidence. Unfinest Hour asks uncomfortable questions that all of us must answer.

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