umanitarian action has become an omnipresent element in international affairs. It now shapes our world and will have an increasingly important impact on the way decisions are made in international crises. W. R. Smyser looks at the history of humanitarian activity and its growth since the horrors of World War II, tracing its early links to the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to the present day, when human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch are as influential as modern nation states in influencing the course of international events. This is a monumental portrait of the way in which individuals who are not officially part of any govern-ment work to alleviate human suffering and physical destruc-tion around the world. It is also a call to arms at a time when humanitarian efforts are frequently missing or simply misguided.