I might begin with a personal recollection. Almost 17 years ago, in December ...

I might begin with a personal recollection. Almost 17 years ago, in December 1992, I went to the former Yugoslavia as a member of the EU mission to investigate the rape of women during the Balkan conflict. The experience left a deep imprint on all who participated. It was the end of any illusion that barbarity is confined to faraway places. There, in the heart of Europe on the threshold of the twenty-first century, rape was once again an instrument of war. In an article written with a colleague after that mission, we discussed a number of aspects of what had happened. We included the following point: “A distribution of roles whereby men negotiate peace in Geneva while women devise aid programmes for victims is fundamentally unacceptable.”