Phil Clark is a Reader in Comparative and International Politics at School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He specialises in conflict and post-conflict issues in Africa, including transitional justice, peacebuilding and reconciliation. He is also a senior research fellow at the School of Leadership at the University of Johannesburg. Previously, Dr Clark was the co-founder and convenor of Oxford Transitional Justice Research and established the Research, Policy and Higher Education programme at the Aegis Trust Rwanda. His articles have featured in the Guardian, The New York Times, the BBC and CNN websites, Foreign Affairs, Times Higher Education Supplement, Prospect, Dissent, The East African, the Australian and the Huffington Post. His last book was The Gacaca Courts, Post-Genocide Justice and Reconciliation in Rwanda: Justice without Lawyers (Cambridge, 2010). He holds a doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

'Many people talk about the effects of the International Criminal Court in Africa, but Phil Clark is easily the most learned and therefore qualified to do so. His careful and lucid investigation of how justice from afar has transformed local politics is a thrilling achievement.' Samuel Moyn, Yale University, Connecticut

• 1. Introduction: the warlord in the forecourt; 2. Court between two poles: conceptualising 'complementarity' and 'distance'; 3. Who pulls the strings? The ICC's relations with states; 4. In whose name? The ICC's relations with affected communities; 5. When courts collide: the ICC and domestic prosecutions; 6. Peace versus justice Redux: the ICC, amnesties and peace negotiations; 7. The ICC and community-based responses to atrocity; 8. Continental patterns: assessing the ICC's impact in the remaining African situations; 9. Conclusion: narrowing the distance.