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The History and Sociology of Genocide

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... Individuals, families, communities, villages, and cultures are devastated by the atrocities. The expanding research literature on genocide focuses on problems defining genocide (e.g., Chirot and Edwards 2003;Fein 1990), the identification of precursors (e.g., Gurr and Harff 1994;Horowitz 2001), disputes regarding scale (e.g., Hagan, Rymond-Richmond, and Parker 2005; Hagan and Palloni 2006; Heuveline 2001), the creation of typologies (e.g., Chalk and Jonassohn 1990;Chirot and McCauley 2006;Lemkin 1946), and the development of explanatory approaches (e.g., Posen 1993;Kaplan 1993;Diamond 2005;Hardin 1995;Valentino 2004;Kaufman 2001;Oberschall 2000). While many issues have been examined to understand the causes and consequences of genocide, one issue that has been underexplored is the effect of intergroup social contact and geographic proximity between the perpetrators and victims on genocidal violence. ...
... Fein defines genocide as "sustained purposeful action by a perpetrator to physically destroy a collective directly or indirectly, through interdiction of the biological and social reproduction of group members, sustained regardless of the surrender of lack of threat offered by the victim" (1993,24). Scholars have further altered and expanded upon the legal definition of genocide to include nonlethal acts that threaten the security of members of a group (Lemkin 1946), emphasizing the role of the state (Horowitz 1980), and highlighting one-sided mass killing by the state or other authority (Chalk and Jonassohn 1990). ...
... The expanding research literature on genocide focuses on problems defining genocide (e.g., Chirot and Edwards 2003;Fein 1990), the identification of precursors (e.g., Gurr and Harff 1994;Horowitz 2001), disputes regarding scale (e.g., Hagan, Rymond-Richmond, and Parker 2005; Hagan and Palloni 2006; Heuveline 2001), the creation of typologies (e.g., Chalk and Jonassohn 1990;Chirot and McCauley 2006;Lemkin 1946), and the development of explanatory approaches (e.g., Posen 1993;Kaplan 1993;Diamond 2005;Hardin 1995;Valentino 2004;Kaufman 2001;Oberschall 2000). ...
... Key Words: Genocide, Native people, racism *** Bugüne kadar, kuramsal soykırım araştırmalarının öncelikli amacı uygulanabilir ve kapsamlı bir soykırım tanımı kurmak, ve karşılaştırılabilir durumların çözümlemesini kolaylaştıran soykırım tipolojileri yaratmak olagelmiştir. Günümüzde, soykırım üzerine çalışan çeşitli akademisyenler siyasi grupların yok edilmesi anlamına gelen siyasi kırımlara, bireylerden çok yaşam biçimlerini yok eden etnik kırımlara ve Kitab-ı Mukaddes zamanlarına kadar uzanan tarihsel durumlara giderek çalışmalarında karşılaştırmalı bir temele ulaşmanın yollarını aramaktadırlar (Chalk ve Jonassohn, 1990;Fein, 1990a;Harff ve Gurr, 1988;Harff, 1992). ...
... 4 Niyetin ne olduğunun, Birleşmiş Milletler'in soykırım tanımının gerektirdiği üzere, belli durumlarda kanıtlanması zordur. Bu sorun bazen, eylemlerin altını çizen niyetlerden çok, bunların sonuçlarını vurgulayan "işlevsel" bir soykırım tanımı yoluyla engellenmiştir (daha detaylı tartışma için, Barta, 1987;Chalk ve Jonassohn, 1990;Churchill, 1986;Fein, 1990b;ve Kuper, 1981). ...
... Bu bölümde, -kesinlikle soykırım olarak dikkate alınanlar dahil olmak üzere-karşılaştırmalı soykırım araştırmaları sınırları dışındaki yerli deneyimlerini düzenleye gelen soykırım tipolojilerinin sınırlılığı üzerinde durulmaktadır. Önde gelen tipolojiler gözden geçirildiğinde, yerli halkların soykırımının, çeşitli kategorilerde "iç (yurtiçi) soykırım" (Kuper, 1981), "yayılmacı soykırım" (Fein, 1984), "faydacı soykırım" (Smith, 1987), "fetih soykırımları" (Harff, 1987), ya da "ekonomik varlık kazanmak için işlenen soykırım" (Chalk ve Jonassohn, 1990) olarak adlandırılan diğer soykırımlardan ayrı tutulduğu gözler önüne serilmektedir. Az rastlanan bir istisna Smith'in (1987) "faydacı" ve "ideolojik" kategorilerde Ispanyol fetihlerini içermesidir. ...
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ABSTRACT The experiences of indigenous peoples have been left outside the framework of comparative genocide research. We first discuss conceptual reasons for this omission, focusing on the role of genocide definitions, ideological vs. developmental distinctions in genocide typologies, and the emphasis in genocide typologies on the motivations of perpetrators. We then illustrate the relation between indigenous genocides and other genocides by examining Two important foci of genocide studies: responses and healing. From these comparisons and contrasts, we conclude that a broader comparative approach that acknowledges the importance of indigenous genocides would contribute significantly to genocide studies. Finally, we note that adherence to European worldviews in genocide studies limits the potential for constructive analysis.
... Despite this affirmation, genocide has been perpetrated repeatedly in the last seven decades, costing the lives of more than one million Bengali in Bangladesh in 1971 (Chalk & Jonassohn, 1990;Kuper, 1981); 150,000 Hutu in Burundi in 1972 (Chalk & Jonassohn, 1990;Kuper, 1977); 400,000 civilians in the Vietnam War from 1965-1974 (Lewy, 1978;Sartre, 1968); 1.5 million Cambodians from 1975-1979(Kiernan, 1994Becker, 1986); hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in the Former Yugoslavia in 1992 (Bassiouni, 1996;Bekker, 1993); and 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 (Destexhe, 1995;Prunier, 1995 It was widely expected that the successes of the IMT and the IMTFE would quickly lead to the establishment of a permanent international criminal court (Bassiouni, 1995;Ferencz, 1992;Bridge, 1964). The International Law Commission (ILC) studied the question of a permanent international criminal court at its 1949 and 1950 sessions and concluded that such institutions were "desirable" ...
... Despite this affirmation, genocide has been perpetrated repeatedly in the last seven decades, costing the lives of more than one million Bengali in Bangladesh in 1971 (Chalk & Jonassohn, 1990;Kuper, 1981); 150,000 Hutu in Burundi in 1972 (Chalk & Jonassohn, 1990;Kuper, 1977); 400,000 civilians in the Vietnam War from 1965-1974 (Lewy, 1978;Sartre, 1968); 1.5 million Cambodians from 1975-1979(Kiernan, 1994Becker, 1986); hundreds of thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croats in the Former Yugoslavia in 1992 (Bassiouni, 1996;Bekker, 1993); and 800,000 Tutsi in Rwanda in 1994 (Destexhe, 1995;Prunier, 1995 It was widely expected that the successes of the IMT and the IMTFE would quickly lead to the establishment of a permanent international criminal court (Bassiouni, 1995;Ferencz, 1992;Bridge, 1964). The International Law Commission (ILC) studied the question of a permanent international criminal court at its 1949 and 1950 sessions and concluded that such institutions were "desirable" ...
... Genocide-the worst crime known to mankind-hurts humanity by very large scale casualties, frequently incurred in times of war. 1 The coupling of genocide with war constitutes a serious security predicament in modern times, exemplified by the cases of World War II (WWII) which enabled the Nazi genocide of approximately six million Jews-the Holocaust, and the 1994 civil war in Rwanda which facilitated the genocide of eight hundred thousand Tutsis-killed at a rate three times faster than that of the Jews during the Holocaust. 2 Another example pertains to the 1992-95 Bosnian War which led to approximately one hundred thousand people dead and over two million displaced, including the worst massacre in the European history since WWII-the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995 where more than 7000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in just one week. ...
... Useful introductory texts on genocide studies include Chalk, F., & Jonassohn, K.[1]. The history and sociology of genocide. ...
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The occurrence of genocide during war is a serious security predicament facing humanity in modern times, producing civilian casualties measured in millions. The persistence of this heinous crime renders imperative understanding of the effects of genocide in the course of war and its aftermath, effects that this paper examines in the context of the Srebrenica genocide of July 1995—the darkest moment in European history since the Holocaust. In contributing to a deeper understanding of the relationship between genocide, war, and peace, the paper demonstrates how the Srebrenica genocide has been a factor both in the ending of the Bosnian War and the constitution of inter-ethnic relations in the ensuing peace. The analysis is grounded on a critical examination of the concept of genocide and its close connection with war. When embedded on asymmetrical relations of power, war can be conducive to genocide because it creates organizational, political, and psychological conditions that facilitate large scale killing of targeted people. Whilst in the course of war genocide benefits the perpetrators, in the aftermath of fighting genocide can lend credence to the victims’ community demands for recognition, accountability and redress. At the same time, the perpetrators and their community—frequently—deny genocide with the view to avoiding responsibility and reparations. The instrumental utility of genocide reflects rationales that go at the heart of enhancement of national identity and (contested) claims for political authority and legitimacy. More than twenty years after the Srebrenica genocide, these competitive and divisive claims do not bode well for Bosnia’s societal cohesion and transition to sustainable peace.
... The sequestration of Native Americans on reservations and African Americans in inner-cities has, at times, created apartheid-like conditions for both of those groups (Massey and Denton, 1993;Rothstein 2017;Woodard 2018). At different periods in American history, the U.S. government has deported, en masse, Mexicans and other Latinos (Mize 2016), and it has committed genocide against some Native American tribes (Chalk and Jonassohn, 1990). ...
Article
In 1981 the ATF, FBI, and U.S. Customs Service agents arrested a group of American and Canadian White nationalists as they were on their way to overthrow the government of Dominica. Although seemingly improbable, the event is important because it illustrates the hegemonic nature of the relationship between the United States and Caribbean countries and, also, the globalization of White nationalist violence. In this paper I show that extant theory on White nationalism can be used to explain the White nationalist plot. In particular, I invoke the concept of Lebensraum and the fact that White nationalists espouse multiple objectives—in addition to racism—to explain their intent to subvert a Black country and to live there.
... 16 It was with the Holocaust that we started paying attention to the ones suffered and lost. 17 Since then, the memorializing of a painful past has become a lofty moral obligation of humanity. Does remembrance lead to peace? ...
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While much scholarly attention has been devoted to analyzing governments’ attempts to determine ways of remembering or forgetting the past, little is known about how the politics of remembrance affect the process of reconciliation. To what extent does conflict remembrance actually influence the shaping of collective (national) identities? Does remembering the painful past lead to reconciliation? If not, what does it do? This article addresses these questions by reflecting on the author’s experience of teaching multinational groups at her university in Japan, and discussing fraught issues relating to the Asia-Pacific War (including the “comfort women”) with her classes. Drawing on class observations and student essays from 2016 to 2019, she discusses the often conflicting narratives and identities that students bring to the university classroom and the pedagogical challenges involved in negotiating these. The paper illustrates how highly selective narratives of the national past (learnt at school or absorbed from the media) affect collective identity (the way we perceive the self versus the other), and discusses implications for East Asian reconciliation and peace.
... Two additional factors play a significant role in making the identification of political threat difficult for the regime. First, in the genocidal process, the government highlights the most observable physical or customary features of the target group that differ from its in-group (e.g., Chalk and Jonassohn 1990;Hilberg 1985). These features help in demarcating the group and decreasing uncertainty about whether a given individual is member to the group. ...
Article
Episodes of genocide and politicide show remarkable variation in how long they last. Some end within months; others continue for decades. Why do some persist while others end soon after they start? I argue that uncertainty influences the duration of killing. When a government has difficulty identifying members of a target group, it is less certain that it has accomplished its violent goals vis-à-vis the group. Therefore, the more uncertain the government is about the source of the threat it faces, the longer its killing will last. Statistical analysis of all episodes of genocide and politicide from 1955 to 2011 supports these claims.
... The middle ground between the extremes is occupied by those whom we may call "moderates," who hold that specific, theoretically motivated comparisons between the Holocaust and other genocides and even state organized terror are valid (Porter, 1982;Papazian, 1984;Chalk and Jonassohn, 1990;Goekjian, 1991;Destexhe, 1995). Although the particularists and moderates differ profoundly, they are united in deploring comparisons by elites, interest groups, and public activists that they perceive as irresponsible, and carelessly reasoned. ...
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Situations defined as real are real in their consequences. 1 I define "genocidalism" (stipulatively) as follows: (i) The purposeful neglect to attribute responsibility for genocide in cases when overwhelming evidence exists, and as (ii) the energetic attributions of "genocide" in less than clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation. We may call the first manifestation "genocidalism of omission ," while the second represents the genocidal use of the word "genocide" or "genocidalism of commission." If we were to explore the relationship between the two manifestations of genocidalism we would uncover, I suspect, that the latter often functions in a way that strengthens the former. Namely, the outcome of a genocidal use of "genocide" may lead to omission of attributing appropriate responsibility for genocide or some other serious wrongs in some related cases. However, in this chapter I want to focus on clarifying as much as possible the nature of the genocidal use of "genocide." (It remains for another occasion to develop an account of genocidalism of omission and how its purposes are often helped by the genocidal use of "genocide" studied in this chapter.)
... 66 After all, 'even veteran anti-Semites found it hard to imagine that the Nazi regime seriously intended to make the Jewish people extinct'. 67 It is all the more remarkable, then, that Adorno and Horkheimer had the courage to re-think this approach to understanding antisemitism and the assumptions of the Jewish question running through it. ...
... The field of genocide studies has grown exponentially since the Polish jurist, Raphael Lemkin (1944), introduced the term "genocide" in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Influential studies from a legal, political, and sociological perspective include Schabas (2009), Meierhenrich (2014, and Chalk and Jonassohn (1990). 2. It was because genocide is essentially committed by or with the connivance of the states/governments that Sir Hartley Shawcross opined that the crime of genocide should not be left to the jurisdiction of national courts since the latter are unlikely to take effective measures for the suppression of genocide. ...
Article
Protection from genocide has been a common denominator in state rhetoric since 1948 when the Genocide Convention was adopted. However, state accountability for this archetypical crime of the state is virtually nonexistent. This article addresses a two-pronged puzzle: namely, (1) why, no government involved in the commission of genocide has to date been held responsible for it; and (2) how legal processes of the sole court that addresses states' disputes regarding genocide, the International Court of Justice, condition and even limit the quality of decisions taken by the court with particular reference to state liability for this crime. The analysis contributes to an emerging debate on the application of state responsibility with reference to the protection from genocide by highlighting existing shortcomings pertaining to the interpretation and implementation of the Genocide Convention that, in turn, warrants a holistic revision of this treaty.
... It is loss of individual lives that matters most for Chalk and Jonassohn, who have been strong proponents of the categorical separation between cultural and physical forms of destruction. 29 One also confronts Chalk's more benign view of colonialism in Canada in an earlier Holocaust and Genocide Studies article, where he argues in response to those, such as Tony Barta,30 who advance structuralist perspectives for understanding colonial genocidal relations: 'why did the native peoples of Canada fare so much better during the invasion by Europeans than the original inhabitants of the United States or Tasmania'? 31 Because incidents of massacre were less prominent in Canada, indigenous peoples within this colonial state are seemingly considered to be the beneficiaries of settlement, thereby perpetuating the Canadian myth of the peaceful frontier. ...
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This introductory article offers an overview of debates about genocide and settler colonialism in Canada. The argument is presented that Canada, although a marginal case to genocide studies, provides important insights and challenging questions, particularly with respect to the need to decolonize the field of genocide studies.
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Мета — аналіз спроб застосування практик геноцидних студій для характеристики волинських подій 1943 р. Дискусійність означення українсько-польського протистояння як «геноциду», тенденція до його утвердження та використання характерних підходів у розмовах про інші історичні події, котрі визначають як геноцид, привертає увагу дослідників. Завдання. На основі вивчення наукових праць визначити, наскільки виправдана кваліфікація українсько-польського протистояння в роки Другої світової війни як геноциду. Методологічним підґрунтям виступають принципи науковості, історичної об’єктивності, неупередженості, порівняльні процедури та міждисциплінарні підходи. Наукова новизна полягає в комплексності дослідження актуальних питань визнання чи невизнання подій геноцидом, аналізі суперечливих аспектів щодо відповідальності за цей злочин. Висновки. Констатовано, що встановлення фактів геноциду — складне завдання. Розглядаються вузлові питання правової оцінки Волинської трагедії. Водночас наголошено на використанні поняття «геноцид» поза правовим контекстом науковцями, політиками, громадськими діячами. Ключовими дисциплінами, що складають підґрунтя вивчення волинських подій, є соціологія, соціальна психологія, антропологія, історія, які дозволяють зрозуміти механізми колективної поведінки та взаємодії у соціальних колективах. Виокремлено головні постулати «геноцидної інтерпретації» Волині’43, окремо звернено увагу на крайню інтерпретацію, запропоновану Р. Шавловським. Робиться висновок, що основним елементом визнання подій геноцидом на сьогодні є участь в їх здійсненні державних органів. Звернено увагу на порівняльні дослідження геноцидів як друге покоління геноцидних студій (сербсько-хорватський конфлікт у роки Другої світової війни, події в Руанді). Перспективи подальших досліджень полягають у подоланні «замкненості» у джерелознавчому та історіографічному підходах до «волинської проблеми» через розширення соціокультурного контексту та методологічного ракурсу в міждисциплінарному напрямі.
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This Element volume provides an up-to-date synthesis of the archaeology of the Roman conquest, combining new theoretical and methodological approaches with the latest fieldwork results. Recent advances in conflict archaeology research are revolutionising our knowledge of Rome's military campaigns in Western and Central Europe, allowing scholars to reassess the impact of the conquest on the indigenous populations. The volume explores different types of material evidence for the Roman wars of conquest, including temporary camps, battlefields, coinage production, and regional settlement patterns. These and other topics are examined using four case studies: Caesar's Gallic Wars, the Cantabrian and Asturian Wars, the Germanic Wars of Augustus, and the Roman conquest of Britain. By focusing on the 'dark sides' of the Roman expansion and reclaiming the memory of the conquered, the Element aims to contribute to a more holistic understanding of the processes of incorporation and integration into the Roman Empire.
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Lemkin's considerations about genocide are critically discussed and reflected upon in this chapter.
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The lessons of the history of past genocidal incidents expose that the educated and the leaders, collectively called ‘intellectuals’, have often been a distinct target by the perpetrators. Bengali intellectuals were also targeted and killed by the Pakistani military and its local collaborators during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. As the Bangladesh genocide, committed by the Pakistani military and its local collaborators, is still internationally overlooked, the issue of killing the Bengali intellectuals during such genocide has not obtained much attention. This study identifies the killing of the intellectuals as one of the genocidal policies employed by the Pakistani military and its local collaborators during the war. The massacre of the Bengali intellectuals in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War is examined in this article from the perspective of the 1948 Genocide Convention. The authors have critically analyzed the killing of the Bengali intellectuals in light of the definition of ‘genocide’ and the travaux preparatoires of the Convention to explore whether it forms a genocidal policy.
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The paper evaluates the prevailing anxieties gnawing at the Nigeria nation-state, deriving from the Fulani herdsmen’s genocidal campaign. These anxieties are painstakingly reflected in insecurity, chaos, violence, banditry, and uncertainty that have built up in recent times to complicate the Nigeria nation-state’s fragile sovereignty. Embedded in the poetics of the selected poems is the repudiation of the postcolonial contradictions, which highlight egregious inequity as foreshadowed in the northern Caliphate’s domination of the middle-belt and the southern federating units. The emergence of varied ethnic nationalisms becomes a political fallout from a rejection of the northern Caliphate’s domination. Years of accrued resentment against this domination will be contextualized in the paper, to explicate the possibility of ostensible Nigeria nation-state’s disintegration. Frenzied calls for the country’s disintegration culminated when middle-belt and southern Nigeria are being continually plundered by the Fulani herdsmen to perpetrate the most horrendous genocidal killings on a daily basis. The paper intends not only at drawing attention to possible causes of Nigeria nationhood’s failure thematic but to also interrogate the Fulani herdsmen’s killings within the context of a genocide framework. Further, the paper foregrounds a condemnation of the insidious pressures of Fulani-inspired ethnic cleansing in the poetry of diverse Nigerian poets.
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When and where do teachers care about historical justice? Using the data collected in oral history interviews with secondary school history teachers in England, who have taught between 1980 and the present; Mann analyses teachers’ motivations when educating about the Holocaust in Key Stage Three history, a school topic imbued with civic objectives. Beyond the Holocaust, some teachers choose to educate about other more recent genocides, primarily the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda and the Srebrenica genocide. This study analyses whether attaining justice for more recent genocides motivates teachers and informs their lesson planning. It considers whether truth-telling forms part of the history teacher’s mission, explores which genocides teachers feel morally obliged to teach, and explores why Holocaust memory enables teachers in England to articulate genocidal violence, but not colonial violence.
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»Ein Toter ist eine Tragödie, eine Million Tote sind eine Statistik.« Dieser Satz, der in den 1920er Jahren zum geflügelten Wort wurde, wird heute zumeist Stalin zugesprochen, und er verweist auf eine psychologische Schranke, die sich die großen Massenmörder der Moderne – Jossif W. Stalin, Mao Zedong und Adolf Hitler – zunutze gemacht haben: Das massenhafte Morden hat im 20. Jh. eine quantitative Dimension angenommen, die die menschliche Vorstellungskraft übersteigt. Rudolph J. Rummel schätzt, dass im 20. Jh.
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This article presents a theoretical reflection on genocidal processes. In the first place, we will propose the compatibility of the paradigm of permission with the paradigm of obedience, which would allow us to talk about tolerated genocidal acts, encouraged genocidal acts, and actively pursued genocidal acts. As we open up to the paradigm of permission this would lead us to challenge the explanations which regard genocidal processes as ruptures from civilization, from the moral order, and from the logic in everyday life in modern societies. It will be argued, in second place, that a paradigm of continuities would allow us to explore genocidal processes in a more accurate way. We will go on, then, in our third section, to the details of three processes which operate both in genocidal processes and in everyday life in modern societies: the categorization and construction of ‘others’, the construction of weakness, and the construction of superfluity.
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This article explores the crime of genocide in connectivity to groups defined by gender. Its aim is to investigate whether including groups defined by gender as a protected group in the Genocide Convention appears legally plausible. It begins by probing the historical origins of the concept of genocide. This exposition emanates into an analytical examination of the rationale of protecting human groups in international criminal law. Against this background, the article advocates an understanding of the crime of genocide as a rights-implementing institute. Subsequently, it employs an ejusdem generis analysis to assess whether groups defined by gender are coherent with the current canon of the protected groups, and if similar treatment thereby can be warranted. It then turns to examine other international law instruments, to expose that none of these are suitable proxies in dealing with gender-specific genocides. From this perspective, the article suggests that the content of the crime of genocide is not determinate, but rather emerges as a battlefield for hegemonic interests. Hence, it is easily discernible that the way in which the current construction of the protected groups in the Genocide Convention relates to gender groups reflects a deliberate choice. The article concludes with asserting that the choice represents a lacuna in international criminal law that in the end compromises the legitimacy of the crime of genocide, since the personal scope of the crime of genocide risks being in discord with current social and political trajectories.
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Holocaust literature gives exhaustive attention to direct means of exterminating Jews, by using gas chambers, torture, starvation, disease, and intolerable conditions in ghettos and camps, and by the Einsatzgruppen. In some circles, the term “Holocaust” has become the ultimate description of horror or horrific events. The Nazi medical experiments and practices are an example of these. Nazi medical science played a central and crucial role in creating and implementing practices designed to achieve a “Master Race.” Doctors interfered with the most intimate and previously sacrosanct aspects of life in these medical experiments – reproductive function and behavior – in addition to implementing eugenic sterilizations, euthanasia, and extermination programs. Manipulating reproductive life – as a less direct method of achieving the genocide of Jews – has been less acknowledged. The Nazis prevented those regarded as not meeting idealized Nazi racial standards – and particularly Jewish women – from having sex or bearing children through legal, social, psychological and biological means, as well as by murder. In contrast, they promoted reproductive life to achieve the antithesis of genocide – the mass promotion of life – among those deemed sufficiently “Aryan.” Implementing measures to prevent birth is a core feature of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. As with many other aspects of the Holocaust, science and scientists were inveigled into providing legitimacy for Nazi actions. The medical profession was no exception and was integrally involved in the manipulation of birth to implement the Holocaust.
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An autobiographical essay exploring themes at the heart of comparative genocide studies. Published in Samuel Totten, ed., "Advancing Genocide Studies: Personal Accounts and Insights from Scholars in the Field" (Transaction, 2015).
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This article relates to events in Ethiopia on the border of Oromia and Somali states in 2017, and explains that genocide scholars do not accept political motives as an excuse for any government to commit genocide. However, it is shown here that government policy led to violent acts of relocation resulting in deaths within a targeted group. Hence, it is argued that there was a government policy in place that prevented charity to reach destitute victims. Although the government has spun the mass displacement as mere 'ethnic clashes at the border' to absolve itself, the study finds the presence of dolus specialis or special intent to destroy a group, which is a key element to prove the crime of genocide. Also the acts of 2017 have directly affected over 2.5 percent of the present Oromo population. Lastly, this essay analyzed 'slow genocide' as it relates to policies of the government of Ethiopia.
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Interstate rivalry not only influences a country’s international behavior, but also its domestic conduct. Here, I focus on the connection between interstate rivalry and domestic government mass killing, specifically genocide and politicide. I argue that interstate rivalry has both direct and indirect influences on a government’s decision to use mass violence against its civilian population. Directly, countries engaged in rivalry experience a heightened state of military tension, which increases the likelihood that the country will resort to political mass killing when handling domestic dissent. Indirectly, rivalry increases the likelihood of both inter- and intrastate conflict, which also increases the likelihood of genocide and politicide. Statistical analysis of all country-years from 1955 to 2011 reveals that interstate rivals are more likely to engage in genocide and politicide than are other states. This research illustrates the way in which interstate rivalry influences a state’s domestic politics and shapes the interactions between government and population. It also highlights the importance of how the international threat environment affects a state’s willingness to engage in domestic political mass murder. These findings indicate that rivals do not only engage in the most violent interstate behavior, but also some of the deadliest domestic politics, as well.
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Esta investigación estudia la reconstrucción de la memoria del genocidio de los pueblos indígenas de la Patagonia meridional (1880-1920) en los textos de poesía De la tierra sin fuegos (1986) de Juan Pablo Riveros, La Cacería (1989) de Pavel Oyarzún y El cementerio más hermoso de Chile por Christian Formoso. Estos textos literarios establecen conexiones entre el genocidio indígena y otros eventos traumáticos para la nación chilena, como la dictadura militar (1973-1990), señalando paralelismos entre las víctimas, los perpetradores y los espacios de violencia. Estos textos se basan en elementos de otras disciplinas -historiografía, etnografía, antropología- y otros discursos literarios -cronicas, literatura de viajes, revistas- creando un texto híbrido que se ubica entre disciplinas. En estos autores podemos reconocer algunas nuevas dinámicas en la poesía chilena que provocan una escritura heterogénea en la construcción de nuevos debates literarios. Desde un punto de vista teórico, esta investigación doctoral desarrolla el concepto de mutaciones disciplinarias que es representativo de la poesía post-vanguardista chilena del período dictatorial. Las mutaciones disciplinarias son una tremenda influencia en la literatura contemporánea de Magallanes que construyó un texto mutable en la intersección entre palabras, imágenes, objetos y acciones. Un aspecto importante en estos textos híbridos es el uso de la fotografía etnográfica (Martin Gusinde, Julius Popper, Alberto de Agostini) como elemento disruptivo y denunciante. Así, las imágenes fotográficas permiten la reconstrucción de la memoria del genocidio indígena en textualidades innovadoras. Esta investigación doctoral identifica el significado del genocidio de los indígenas del sur de la Patagonia como una problemática que concierne a todo el continente americano. El genocidio se refiere a la explotación, la muerte, el abuso, la causa del tráfico humano incluye la eliminación física sistemática y la eliminación de rastros culturales, pero también a la segregación, la esclavitud y el despojo de los territorios de los nativos. Esta investigación es crítica porque discute el significado de las huellas de la memoria que se han omitido de la construcción autorizada de la memoria, introducida en Chile con la dictadura militar. En este sentido, los textos literarios de Riveros, Oyarzún y Formoso proporcionan posibles caminos para filtrar estas huellas en las brechas de la memoria en el Chile contemporáneo.
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Over the past decade, Crimean Tatars started to express more robustly their requests for the international recognition of the 1944 Mass Deportation as the crime of genocide. While it can be said, even prima facie, that the 1944 Deportation falls under the scope of the current definition of crimes against humanity, making a similar kind of claim with the same immediateness is unlikely in terms of the crime of genocide owing to the narrowly constructed legal definition. Moreover, the principle of non-retroactivity of laws poses a further challenge in the consideration of both genocide and crimes against humanity. This paper will try to answer two interconnected questions: Is it a legally plausible case to characterize the 1944 Deportation as genocide or crimes against humanity? And, are there any differences between the legal characterization of 1944 Deportation as genocide or crimes against humanity in terms of their possible consequences?
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Genocide, said my caller from Zagreb in 1994 (Dr. Slobodan Lang of the Helsinki Watch Committee), has become the most successful crime of this century. Unlike an occupation or colonial enterprise, its results cannot be undone. Since 1992, the practice of genocide has reoccurred in Europe, where it was stopped, we had wishfully believed since 1945, forever.KeywordsGeneva ConventionInternational Criminal TribunalJewish QuestionArmenian GenocideMemorial MuseumThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Genocide, said my caller from Zagreb, has become the most successful crime of the twentieth century. Unlike an occupation or colonial enterprise, its results cannot be undone. Each new genocide can be understood as an act by the perpetrators testing their understanding of the preconditions; testing their calculus of costs and opportunity; testing their anticipation that it will not be deterred and will work.
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In “The Shias of Pakistan: Mapping an Altruistic Genocide”, Abbas Zaidi critically examines the Shia genocide taking place in Pakistan. Claiming that the existing definitions of genocide are monolithic grand narratives, he refines the definition by contextualizing it with reference to the Shia genocide. One of the salient features of his proposal is that it explores genocide as being altruistic. Zaidi also investigates how power alignments play their part in defining genocide. Unlike previous studies on genocide, the chapter proposes a model of genocide and explores the Shia genocide by referencing it.
Article
Devant leur pluralisation ethnoculturelle augmentant chaque jour davantage, les États peuvent recourir à quatre principaux modes d’action: l’asssimilation qui est une forme d’exclusion dans ses formes les plus violentes (monoculturalisme); la différenciation altérisante (interculturalisme); l’institutionalisation de type pluraliste (multiculturalisme); et l’intégration à caractère relationnaliste (transculturalisme). À partir du cas canadien, ce texte propose principalement de mieux définir ces grandes approches à la gestion contemporaine du pluralisme ethnique, suggérant notamment d’entrevoir le transculturalisme comme une forme de « multiculturalisme dense » donnant une direction normative à ce qui autrement peut demeurer un cadre surtout légaliste qu’il s’agirait donc de mieux approfondir.
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Eine Schwangerschaft ist, biologisch gesehen, eine Symbiose zwischen Frau und Embryo. In der Antike ging man in der Interpretation dieser Beziehung sogar so weit, den Fötus bis zur Geburt als Teil der mütterlichen Eingeweide zu sehen. Das war jedenfalls die Auffassung der berühmten römischen Rechtssammlung (Corpus Iuris Civilis), die über Jahrhunderte das Rechtsdenken und die Rechtspraxis im Abendland bestimmte. Daraus ergab sich die folgenreiche Annahme, dass das ungeborene Leben, das im Mutterleib heranwuchs, noch nicht als menschliches Wesen aufgefasst werden und damit auch keinen wie auch immer gearteten Rechtsschutz in Anspruch nehmen könne. Die extreme Auffassung des klassischen römischen Rechts wurde alsbald vom Christentum verdrängt und geriet langsam in Vergessenheit. Der Schutz des werdenden Lebens — zu welchem Zeitpunkt man auch immer die Beseelung ansetzte — schien gleichwertig und manchmal sogar noch wichtiger als die Erhaltung des Lebens oder der Gesundheit der Mutter.
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Regardless of where or on how small a scale it begins, the crime of genocide is the complete ideological repudiation of, and a direct murderous assault upon, the prevailing liberal international order. Genocide is fundamentally incompatible with, and destructive of, an open, tolerant, democratic, free market international order. As geno-cide scholar Herbert Hirsch has explained: The unwillingness of the world community to take action to end genocide and political massacres is not only immoral but also impractical … [W]ithout some semblance of stability, commerce, travel, and the international and intranational interchange of goods and information are subjected to severe disruptions.3
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Although they often differ sharply on the numbers, scholars without exception now portray the European colonization of the Americas as a monumental, perhaps unprecedented, demographic catastrophe for the continents’ indigenous peoples. Rejecting earlier estimates that held that the New World was sparsely populated in 1492, demographers now provide projections that, in their highest estimates, sometimes exceed 112,000,000.1 There is general agreement that, whatever their precise pre-contact numbers, indigenous populations within a century after contact were reduced by 90% or more. There is agreement as well on the prime agent of that decimation: infectious diseases to which native peoples had no immunity. But it is also generally recognized that atrocities against native American peoples committed by the invader-colonizers also contributed to their population decline. Did those atrocities constitute genocide? On that question there has been disagreement and controversy.
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Conceptions of genocide profoundly shape our perceptions of history. Is genocide rare or common? Which events are genocides and which, however objectionable or horrifying, are not? Which persons or groups are victims of genocide, which are perpetrators, and which are neither — or both? Our perception of historical events as genocides depends not only on what happened in the past — who did what to whom for what reasons, under what circumstances, and with what results? — but also on how we conceptualize genocide: which combinations of perpetrators, actions, victims, reasons, circumstances, and results constitute genocide and which do not?
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The Prophet Jeremiah (626–586 b.c.) lamented the pitiful state of Zion as it “shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,” and as the “sons of Zion” “wandered as blind men in the streets, they (have) polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments” (Lam. 4: 13–14). And he prophesied that Zion would become “a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends.” As we witness Ariel Sharon slide ineluctably into that great dark night, the words of Jeremiah come back to haunt Israel. This man, like no other in recent Israeli politics, has left his indelible mark on Palestine, carved like a searing branding iron on the landscape, the mark created by his Wall of Fear, which marks the Israel he strove to create out of stolen Palestinian land even as he herded 3 million people into walled corrals like cattle. This man, who wielded euphemistic words to kill truth as skillfully as he thrust his sword to kill the innocent, created a new party, the National Responsibility Party, to retain power that he might finish his job of cleansing Israel of Palestinians. Who better to create a still-born party of such a name than the man who severed the national spirit of the Jews by wielding a sword that cut in two the very fabric of Jewish morality.
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The Nazi Holocaust is recognized as representing the ultimate culture of terror (Lewin, 1993). It has been argued that the effects of torture and maltreatment entered the scientific consciousness in its aftermath (Engdahl & Eberly, 1990). The enormity of the suffering of survivors of Nazi concentration camps and other atrocities has led to pioneering research on the long-term effects of massive psychic trauma. The history and contributions of the literature on survivors of the Nazi Holocaust also poignantly illustrate the complexities, ethical dilemmas, and scientific challenges inherent in understanding and documenting the role of perpetrators, bystanders, rescuers, and healers at various points in the experience and aftermath of trauma (Hilberg, 1992). The ethical and moral implications of focusing on alternative perspectives must also be acknowledged. A focus on documenting adverse impacts may serve to revictimize survivors, whereas a focus on their adaptability, strength, and resiliency may be construed as trivializing the horrors that they have endured (Davidson & Charny, 1992).
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Zwei große Optionen beherrschen die Gewaltforschung: der ätiologische Ansatz, die Ursachensuche, einerseits, welche Gewalt auf bestimmte einzelne (offene oder latente) Defizite und Konflikte zurückführt und andererseits die Analyse der Gewaltordnung als Teil des Gesellschaftssystems. Letztere fragt nach spezifischen Formen der Gewalt-Einbettung und nach konfliktregulierenden Institutionen. Die gesellschaftsvergleichende Forschung der Sozialanthropologie bzw. Ethnologie konvergiert zunehmend in der letzteren Perspektive (cf. Abbink 1994 a, 1994 b; Bollig 1991; Elwert/Feuchtwang/Neubert 1999; Halbmayer 2000; Orywal 1996; Schlee 2000; Schmidt/Schroeder 2001).
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The aim of this chapter is to advance the development of a conceptual framework for the study of genocide, by comparing the etiology of the Holocaust to the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Some current explanations of the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide emphasize the ideologies of the perpetrators, the functional exigencies of the organizations of destruction, and the provocative behaviors of the victims. Without denying the importance of such factors this discussion focuses on the revolutionary crises of the state, on the successful modernization and mobilization of traditionally despised minorities, and on war as crucial elements causing genocide.
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Genocide not only annihilates people but also destroys and reorganizes social relations, using terror as a method. In Genocide as Social Practice, social scientist Daniel Feierstein looks at the policies of state-sponsored repression pursued by the Argentine military dictatorship against political opponents between 1976 and 1983 and those pursued by the Third Reich between 1933 and 1945. He finds similarities, not in the extent of the horror but in terms of the goals of the perpetrators.The Nazis resorted to ruthless methods in part to stifle dissent but even more importantly to reorganize German society into a Volksgemeinschaft, or people’s community, in which racial solidarity would supposedly replace class struggle. The situation in Argentina echoes this. After seizing power in 1976, the Argentine military described its own program of forced disappearances, torture, and murder as a “process of national reorganization” aimed at remodeling society on “Western and Christian” lines.For Feierstein, genocide can be considered a technology of power-a form of social engineering-that creates, destroys, or reorganizes relationships within a given society. It influences the ways in which different social groups construct their identity and the identity of others, thus shaping the way that groups interrelate. Feierstein establishes continuity between the “reorganizing genocide” first practiced by the Nazis in concentration camps and the more complex version-complex in terms of the symbolic and material closure of social relationships -later applied in Argentina. In conclusion, he speculates on how to construct a political culture capable of confronting and resisting these trends.First published in Argentina, in Spanish, Genocide as Social Practice has since been translated into many languages, now including this English edition. The book provides a distinctive and valuable look at genocide through the lens of Latin America as well as Europe.
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This paper discusses the cultural and sociological background of the Holocaust, based on Zygmunt Bauman's modernity theory. By observing the paradoxes of western societies' modern development it is argued that the Holocaust could have happened not despite but thanks to modernity. A high level of bureaucratization and scientifi c and technological progress, together with the diff usion of moral responsibility, create potential for social confl icts of greater intensity. In this paper, lessons of the Holocaust are therefore discussed not so much with regards to ethnic Jews but as a reference point for a critical examination of modern societies. By drawing similarities between solid and liquid modernity (postmodernity), the paper points to dangers of new categorical murders, which can develop in the context of globalized societies that rely on the same principles of instrumental rationality and action devoid of moral judgment. The most important lesson that should be learned from the legacy of the Holocaust is the need to redirect our attention to the sources of genocidal/categorical murders and take common actions in order to prevent them.
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