Gilbert HOLLEUFER was a Harvard Research Fellow and has worked at the ICRC in Geneva. He specialises in the sociology of warfare and teaches at a Swiss senior school.

Philippe COTTER, PhD in International Relations, is the author of Nazism, Terrorism and Serial Killers. For several years now he has been engaged in researching the common roots of all forms of violence.

The Book

How do we deal with feelings of humiliation when they become overwhelming? How can we prevent humiliated people taking revenge on defenceless victims? Joint authors Gilbert Holleufer and Philippe Cotter provide new insights into these pressing issues, in a world thrown off balance by the demise of the great ideological blocs and by the 9/11 attacks.

In the first part of the book Gilbert Holleufer compares and contrasts the witness accounts of those who experienced the terrible conflicts of the late 20th century (Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine, Bosnia) with the aim of putting forward strategies to tackle collective forms of humiliation. In the second part Philippe Cotter analyses the modern forms of humiliation as well as the ensuing explosions of violence.

On the web...

UNSpecial, Humiliated populations in crisis zones: issues for humanitarian action, by Phillipe Cotter and Gilbert Holleufer, Nr 686 July-August 2009.

Original research, Humiliated populations in crisis zones (GIAN), by Phillipe Cotter and Gilbert Holleufer.