Last Lectures on the Prevention and Intervention of Genocide

349 Pages·2018·16.778 MB·English

by  Samuel Totten (ed.)

Last Lectures on the Prevention and
Intervention of Genocide
Last Lectures on the Prevention and Intervention of Genocide is a collection of
hypothetical ‘last lectures’ by some of the top scholars and practitioners across
the globe in the fields of human rights and genocide studies. Each lecture pur-
portedly constitutes the last thing the author will ever say about the prevention
and intervention of genocide.
The contributions to this volume are thought-p rovoking, engaging, and at
times controversial, reflecting the scholars’ most advanced thinking about issues
of human rights and genocide.
This book will be of great interest to professors, researchers, and students of
political science, international relations, psychology, sociology, history, human
rights, and genocide studies.
Samuel Totten is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas, USA. In
July and August 2004, he was one of 24 investigators on the US State Depart-
ment’s Atrocities Documentation Project, and in 2008 he served as a Fulbright
Scholar at the Centre for Conflict at the National University of Rwanda.
Routledge Studies in Genocide and Crimes against Humanity
Edited by Adam Jones
University of British Columbia in Kelowna, Canada.
The Routledge Series in Genocide and Crimes against Humanity publishes
cutting-e dge research and reflections on these urgently contemporary topics.
While focusing on political-h istorical approaches to genocide and other mass
crimes, the series is open to diverse contributions from the social sciences,
humanities, law, and beyond. Proposals for both sole- authored and edited
volumes are welcome.
The Structural Prevention of Mass Atrocities
Understanding Risks and Resilience
Stephen McLoughlin
Constructing Genocide and Mass Violence
Society, Crisis, Identity
Maureen Hiebert
Last Lectures on the Prevention and Intervention of Genocide
Edited by Samuel Totten
Last Lectures on the
Prevention and Intervention
of Genocide
Edited by
Samuel Totten
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 selection and editorial matter, Samuel Totten; individual chapters,
the contributors
The right of Samuel Totten to be identified as the author of the editorial
matter, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-22167-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-40977-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Editor’s note x
Notes on contributors xi
Acknowledgments xxvii
Foreword xxviii
ERvIN STAUB
Introduction 1
SAMUEL TOTTEN
PART I
Fundamental concerns: humanity’s responsibility 19
1 Using norms, knowledge, and narratives for the prevention
of crimes against humanity and genocide 21
JOHANNA RAY vOLLHARDT
2 To act or not to act immediately? Is there really a question? 28
AGNIESzkA BIEńCzYk-MISSALA
3 Between empathy and fear: recalibrating incentives for
atrocity prevention 34
EYAL MAYROz
4 When outsiders are threats: how to move beyond a culture
of fear to a shared sense of humanity 40
CARLA BARqUEIRO
PART II
Critical factors vis-à -vis issues of prevention and intervention 45
 5  Preventing deadly conflict 47
I. WILLIAM zARTMAN
vi Contents
6 The foot soldiers of evil: on the importance of individual
perpetrators in genocide prevention 53
TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
7 Protection of all peoples: ending double standards and
embracing justice 60
STEPHEN zUNES
8 Genocide and/or ethnic cleansing: recognition, prevention,
and the need for definitional clarity?  67
CLOTILDE PéGORIER
PART III
Lack of political will is not the only obstacle to
preventing genocide 73
9 Will the world ever be interested in stopping atrocities? 75
kURT MILLS
10 How three common misconceptions get in the way of
preventing genocide 83
LAWRENCE WOOCHER
11 Need to quit playing along the edges and get serious! 89
SAMUEL TOTTEN
PART IV
Commentary on past and current approaches to
prevention and intervention 101
12  Whither anti- genocide efforts? Some personal reflections 103
THOMAS G. WEISS
13  The final battle 108
ALEX J. BELLAMY
14 Questioning the turn towards the “responsibility to prevent” 114
AIDAN HEHIR
15  Why the R2P backfires (and how to fix it)  121
ALAN J. kUPERMAN
Contents vii
PART V
Innovations still to be considered/implemented 127
16 Local structures of prevention and the obligation to prevent
genocide as an individual right 129
EkkEHARD STRAUSS
17 The Al Capone strategy: follow the money 134
REBECCA TINSLEY
18 Reducing genocides, one region at a time 140
EDWARD kISSI
19 The time has come for genocide scholars to innovate: the
critical need to develop and implement new and unique tools
for prevention 147
ISRAEL W. CHARNY
20 Putting moral agency and the precautionary principle to
work for the prevention of genocide and its incitement 152
ELIHU D. RICHTER
21 Rethinking genocide prevention 157
GREGORY H. STANTON
22  Subterranean atrocities: a twenty- first-century challenge for 
mass atrocity prevention 163
CHARLES H. ANDERTON
23 Using satellites to detect mass human rights violations: a call
for the international community to implement an early
warning detection system 171
ANDREW MARX
PART VI
Holding perpetrators responsible: no impunity 181
24 No more lies: genocide prevention through perpetrator
accountability 183
MELANIE O’BRIEN
25 Lessons staring us in the face 189
LINDA MELvERN
viii Contents
PART VII
Now what? 195
26 Resilient societies and atrocity prevention 197
STEPHEN MCLOUGHLIN
27 Whither genocide prevention? 203
kAREN E. SMITH
28  Why the (Western) cavalry isn’t coming and what we can do 
about it 209
MAUREEN S. HIEBERT
29 “So the world may know all”: the importance of education
for genocide prevention 215
DEBORAH MAYERSEN
30 All the candidates agreed about Darfur, and then… 222
JOHN HAGAN
31 What’s it going to take? Last thoughts on preventing
genocide 224
JOHN HUBBEL WEISS
32  From the clenched fist to the open hand: a last lecture and 
first lesson from critical genocide prevention studies 234
ALEXANDER LABAN HINTON
33 Genocide structures the very world we live in 240
HENRY C. THERIAULT
34 My last lecture: some central elements of prevention 249
ERvIN STAUB
35 The withdrawal of states from the International Criminal
Court: a potential setback in relation to the prevention of
genocide and crimes against humanity? 258
ETIENNE RUvEBANA
36 Anti- genocide 268
CHRISTOPHER POWELL
Contents ix
37 So where do we go from here? A view from Bosnia and
Herzegovina 274
EDINA BEćIREvIć
38 Double standards and the quest for justice 282
WILLIAM A. SCHABAS
39 Making sense of the senseless 290
MICHAEL BARNETT
  Afterword: the last word from a final journey: witness to 
the first genocide of the 21st century and the last genocide of 
the 20th century 300
MUkESH kAPILA
Index 306