In February 2004, the constitutionally elected government of Jean Bertrand Aristide was overthrown by a US-France invasion with the blessing of the UN Security Council. This coup, under the guise of "humanitarian intervention," sent an unambiguous message to hemispheric opponents such as Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. In exploring how Haiti became a laboratory for a new "politics of containment," Peter Hallward sets the current crisis in historical context, examining the rise, rule and collapse of Aristide's administration, and events since he was forced into exile.

Author Biography

Peter Hallward is Professor of Modern European Philosophy at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University, London. His books include Absolutely Postcolonial: Writing Between the Singular and the Specific and Badiou: A Subject to Truth.