ABSTRACT
In spite of the amount of research on the ad hoc international criminal tribunals (ICTs) undertaken in the past decade, little has been focused on the ICTs’ strategic purposes regarding international peace and security.1 This is because of a disciplinary boundary between international politics and international law and a philosophical boundary between Realism and Liberalism that exist in studies of international affairs. This chapter illustrates the importance of breaking these boundaries for understanding the significance of the ICTs in international peace and security. The aim is to show the role of international war crimes tribunals in post-Cold War international relations by examining a new understanding of international peace and security, and the relationship between law and politics, and peace and justice there. The chapter also illustrates how the international reaction to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia led to the establishment of a Nuremberg-like institution.
