THE OBLITERATION DOCTRINE

Dr Dan Steinbock is an recognized expert of the multipolar world. He focuses on international business, international relations, investment and risk among the leading advanced and large emerging economies.

He is a Senior ASLA-Fulbright Scholar (New York University and Columbia Business School).

Genocide Prevention, Israel, Gaza and the West

Clarity Press

The Obliteration Doctrine tackles the deadliest canon of 21st century warfare. It addresses the abject devastation that this military doctrine has wrought, how it was done and those responsible. It puts the Genocide Convention’s failure to punish and prevent this crime under close scrutiny.

The Obliteration Doctrine combines lethal forms of warfare—scorched-earth military tactics, collective punishment and civilian victimization—with indiscriminate area bombing and counterinsurgency operations. What’s new about this form of warfare is the chilling mix of artificial intelligence and genocidal atrocities in violation of international law, the very foundations of international society and all human life.

This book shows how the doctrine’s implementation in Gaza was facilitated by the United States, with Germany, the UK, Italy and Canada as strategic partners. While Israel pulled the trigger in Gaza, the weaponry and financial and diplomatic support came from the US-led West. Hence their complicity in the fatal carnage.

"... The condemnation of genocide marked a milestone in the progress of human civilization. Yet it would seem that its condemnation as an international crime has not been effective in banishing genocide. It is still happening."

Foreword by MAHATHIR bin MOHAMAD, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Malaysia and President of the Perdana Global Peace Foundation.

“Dan Steinbock’s The Obliteration Doctrine: Genocide Prevention, Israel, Gaza and the West is not only a deeply original examination of the ongoing genocide in Gaza from multiple dimensions, but also a timely theoretical framework that warns against the emerging destructive warfare in the 21st century. Building on the profound insights of his earlier works, Steinbock presents Gaza as a compelling and urgent case study that illuminates the broader dynamics of obliteration methods of genocide. This book will serve as both a critical resource for understanding the Gaza case and a roadmap for preventing future genocides.” - AHMET DAVUTOGLU, former Foreign Minister and Prime Minister of Turkiye. Founder and leader of the Future Party that is represented in the Turkish Parliament, author of Systemic Earthquake: The Struggle for World Order (2019), and prominent academic in International Relations.

"This important study adds a new term to the lexicon on genocide, ‘the obliteration doctrine’, with its detailed review of and insights into the Gaza conflict of 2023-5, notably in the application of international law and its judicial mechanisms. Dan Steinbock’s discussion of the international legal challenges to Israel’s conduct make this a vital contribution to our understanding of the conflict." - WILLIAM A. SCHABAS is professor of international law, Middlesex University London, a leading scholar of genocide and author of Genocide in International Law, Cambridge University Press, 2025

“The West did not flounder into genocide complicity – it plunged into it willfully. Dan Steinbock’s timely new book explains how.” - YANIS VAROUFAKIS, internationally-renowned economist, secretary-general of a pan-European political alliance and the former Finance Minister, Greece

“Dan Steinbock has written an indispensable book that illuminates the most fundamental challenges facing humanity at a time when a massive genocide darkens the skies hovering above the planet. …This is a deeply challenging text that deserves close reading, but more than this, citizen engagement and anti-genocide activism.” - RICHARD A. FALK, former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, and Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s Chairman

” The great merit of Professor Dan Steinbock’s book is that, thanks to its historical, legal and geopolitical approaches, it allows us to grasp the complexity of the absolute tragedy that the Palestinian people are experiencing. By scrupulously studying the theory of the strategy of annihilation claimed to have been used for years by the Israeli army and the historical and legal nature of the notion of genocide, it is a valuable tool for understanding the ongoing human catastrophe in the Middle East.” EDGAR MORIN, internationally-renowned French philosopher and sociologist of information, polycrisis and comple, and recipient of the French Legion of Honor.

“The real purpose of the 1948 Genocide Convention is prevention. This book helps us understand why we have failed.” - ALFRED DE ZAYAS, former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order, international expert on human rights and ethnic expulsions

"Gaza is our moral ground zero. As Dan Steinbock compellingly recounts, even more shocking than the depth of deprivation in Gaza is the candor with which its architects convey their intent and the impunity they enjoy." - ALEX DE WAAL is an internationally-renowned authority on famine and the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

“Dan Steinbock advances the urgent discourse begun in his The Fall of Israel, advancing from a concern with moral responsibility to the framework of legal obligation. His astute analysis dissects how States facilitating genocide—whether through direct aid, political cover, or willful inaction—are culpable under international law. Bold and unflinching, The Obliteration Doctrine challenges the international community to confront its hypocrisy and enforce accountability for Israel and the United States genocide of the Palestinian people. This book is an important contribution to human rights scholarship and a clarion call for justice—when humanity needs it most.” - CURTIS F.J. DOEBBLER, international human rights lawyer, professor of law, and author who has practiced and taught international law in several world regions.

“With The Obliteration Doctrine, Dr. Steinbock has provided historians and layman readers alike the definitive guide to understanding the atrocities committed by the Israeli government with the assistance of the American empire. The book is very well documented, very readable, with a great amount of supporting evidence for his claims. I highly recommend it.” - SCOTT HORTON, director of the Libertarian Institute, author of Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine