The Lion, the Fox & the Eagle: A Story of Generals and Justice in Rwanda and Yugoslavia

In this riveting, original and explosive book, Carol Off explores the failure of peacekeeping missions in Sarajevo and Rwanda, and the international community's attempt to redeem itself by prosecuting the people responsible for the genocides. Events turned on the actions of two Canadian generals: the fox of the title, Lewis MacKenzie, who commanded the UN forces in Bosnia for the first crucial months of the conflict; and the lion, Romeo Dallaire, who developed an interventionary plan that he believed would have prevented the Rwandan genocide but was forced by the UN to stand by while 800,000 people were slaughtered. The eagle is Louise Arbour, a Canadian judge who became Chief Prosecutor for War Crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

This is a Greek drama in three acts: all three people made decisions that affected the lives of millions. All three were required, in the absence of proper guidelines, to rely on their own moral compasses. Not only is The Lion, the Fox and the Eagle a hard-hitting behind-the-scenes account of personal testing and horrifying events, it is also a call to arms to reinvent the peacekeepers' mission, to find the will and the means to prevent future genocides.