Power observes that American policymakers have been consistently reluctant to condemn mass atrocities as genocide or to take responsibility for leading an international military intervention.

She argues that without significant pressure from the American public, policymakers have avoided the term "genocide" altogether, which came into more widespread use after the Holocaust of World War II.

Senator Proxmire and Republican President Ronald Reagan worked to gain support during his administration for the ratification of the Genocide Convention (Chapter 7).

In the rest of the book, she focuses on genocides in individual nations and the U.S. response to such crises in Algeria, Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo.

"[3]Charles V. Peña, then affiliated with the Cato Institute, reviewed the book for Reason, concluding: "That is exactly the point of Power’s compelling narrative: The horror and tragedy of genocide is a moral issue that transcends national interest.