Introduction: Asia-Pacific Perspectives on International Humanitarian Law

When my dear friend and colleague Suzannah Linton first approached me with her suggestion to mark the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, I was immediately enthusiastic. A collection of essays reflecting Asia- Pacific perspectives on international humanitarian law (IHL) with contributors from around the region is both novel and timely. Suzannah, Sandesh and I are all sensitive to the dominance of Western European and North American voices in the academic literature on IHL (at least the academic literature published in English) despite the reality that this particular geographic region has endured many catalytic calamities – that unique combination of tragedy that provides impetus to multilateral norm creation. I will return to that topic with specific examples, but Suzannah’s concept offered an opportunity to begin to redress the relative paucity of contributions from this region.