The Warriors Honor: A Review

The Warrior’s Honour

The Warrior’s Honour by Michael Ignatieff conveys the harsh realities of ethnic war to the reader. It opens a window to pictures and experiences that most cannot, and do not , think of on a daily basis. Michael Igantieff has experienced there realities as he travelled around the world in his work as a journalist, and it is in this book that he shares with us his thoughts and ideas about these war torn countries. In this paper I will review the book and discuss major themes and arguments, as well as the downfall and shortcomings of it.
Very early on the in book ignatieff makes it very clear why he wanted to embark on his journeys and also what he wishes to tell us through this book. He writes of his journeys purpose on page three: “I wanted to find out what mixture of moral solidarity and hubris led Western nations to embark on this brief adventure in putting the world to rights” (Ignatieff 3). He is speaking of the sudden surge of “interventionist internationalism [that] had swelled during the gulf War…” (Ignatieff 3). He also states: “… what, if anything, still connects the zones of safety where I and mot readers of this book are likely to live, and the zones of danger where ethnic struggle has become a way of life?” (Ignatieff 4). Ignatieff clearly maps out the direction of this book by stating:
My Concern here is with moral obligation, beyond our tribe, be- yond our nation, family, intimate network. The Warrior’s Honour is about the impulse we all feel to “do something” when we see some terrible report on television from Bosnia or Afghanistan
(Ignatieff 4).
Ignatieff does not get to these points and arguments until late in the book but leading up to them there are a great deal of arguments and theories made.
One of these such arguments is captured in the title of the first chapter: “ Is Nothing Sacred? The Ethics of Television”. Does the media only display a shallow unfeeling report of the developing and warring world’s strife? Or do they open our eyes to that strife in order to make us reach out. The first chapter of The Warrior’s Honour deals with these questions. Ignatieff first presents a strong case for the side of the media, outlining the facts that it has done a “good deed” by opening the eyes of the Western world and not to mention their pockets (Ignatieff 10).