Genocide - Crisis Response

  • "Starving Armenians:" America and the Armenian Genocide, 1915-1930 and After

    In "Starving Armenians," Merrill Peterson explores the American response to atrocities in Armenia. As the New York Times carried stories about the "slow massacre of a race," public outrage over this tragedy led to an unprecedented philanthropic crusade spearheaded by Near East Relief, dedicated to saving the survivors of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The book also addresses the Armenian aspirations for an independent republic under American auspices; these hopes went unfulfilled in the peacemaking after the war and ended altogether when Armenia was absorbed into the Soviet Union.

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  • "War on Terror" Used to Target Minorities: Report

    "Countries on the front line in the 'war on terror' are using the battle against extremists as a smokescreen to crack down on minority groups, an international human rights group said on Thursday. For the fourth straight year, Somalia, Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan topped an annual index compiled by Minority Rights Group International (MRG) of countries where minorities are most at risk of genocide, mass killings or violent repression." -- from Website

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  • A People Betrayed: the Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide

    In 1994 up to one million people were killed in Rwanda in a deliberate, public and political campaign. For five years, Linda Melvern has worked on the story of this great crime, and this book, a classic piece of investigative journalism, is the result. The new and startling information this book contains has the making of an international scandal. Melvern reveals how the great powers failed to heed the warnings of the coming catastrophe, andrefused to recognize the genocide when it began, ignoring obligations under international law, specifically the genocide convention. A set of secret documents leaked to the author from within the Security Council proves that the circumstances of the genocide were suppressed or ignored.

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  • A President, a Boy and Genocide

    Kristof's opinion piece provides striking detail of the condition of Darfuri aid camps and their precarious situation on the border with Chad.

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  • Arms Embargo

    One of the best ways to limit the destructiveness of a dangerous conflict is to block the flow of additional weapons into an area. Arms embargos attempt to do that.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Assesing Risks of Genocide and Politicide

    "In 1998, in response to President's Clinton's policy initiative on genocide early warning and prevention, the author, a senior consultant with the Task Force, was asked to design and carry out a study that would use her own and other data sources to establish an empirically and theoretically grounded, data- based system for risk assessment and early warning of genocidal violence." -- from Website

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  • Book Review of "Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty" by Roy F. Baumeister

    "Roy Baumeister’s book explores the roots of evil, offering an examination of the subject apart from moralistic musings. When evil acts are encountered, moral outrage is a natural response. Identification and empathy with the victim’s point of view are automatic. Baumeister urges the reader beyond this vantage point, seeking to discern the essential nature of evil. To accomplish his task, Baumeister incorporates historical, political, and psychological factors into the analysis as well as examining the perpetrator's point of view." -- From Book Review

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  • Bystanders to Genocide

    The author's exclusive interviews with scores of the participants in the decision-making, together with her analysis of newly declassified documents, yield a chilling narrative of self-serving caution and flaccid will and countless missed opportunities to mitigate a colossal crime.

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  • Cooling-Off Periods

    Escalation can sometimes be slowed or stopped by calling for a short-term "cooling-off" period during which time all the parties stop engaging and step back to look at the situation and how they might be able to proceed more constructively.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Death Squad: The Anthropology of State Terror

    "Death squad is the first work to focus specifically on the anthropology of state terror. It brings together an international group of anthropologists who have done extensive research in areas marked by extreme forms of state violence and who have studied state terror from the perspective of victims and survivors." -- from Website

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  • Genocide After Emotion: the Post-emotional Balkan War

    The failure to adequately respond on the part of the major Western superpowers to the atrocities in the Balkans constitutes a major moral and political scandal. In Genocide After Emotion, Mestrovic and the contributors thoroughly interrogate the war, its media coverage and response in the West. The result is alarming, both for the progress of the war and for the condition of our society today: the authors argue that the West is suffering from a 'postemotional' condition - we are beyond caring about anything anymore.

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  • Genocide Prevention Project

    "The Genocide Prevention Project seeks to build the public will to call on the international community to take meaningful actions when 'early warning' indicators signal possible onset of mass-scale atrocity crimes, and to mobilize resources to avert or halt such ongoing crises and protect civilians from mass atrocity crimes. The focus is on public education and advocacy." -- from Website

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  • International Intervention and the Severity of Genocides and Politicides

    This study examines the effectiveness of overt military intervention in slowing or stopping the killing during ongoing instances of genocide or politicide... The results suggest that interventions that directly challenge the perpetrator or aid the target of the brutal policy are the only effective type of military responses, increasing the probability that the magnitude of the slaughter can be slowed or stopped." -- from Website

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  • International Regimes

    This essay provides a brief overview of regimes -- what they are, what they do and how they do it (taking into account different theoretical views). It also explores questions that remain about their contributions to international relations, conflict prevention, and peace.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Large-Scale Communication

    This essay discusses ways to communicate to large groups and even whole societies. While the media is the most traditional way of doing this, other approaches are also sometimes utilized, such as community dialogues or even "national conversations."

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Mass Atrocities and Armed Conflict: Links, Distinctions, and Implications for the Responsibility to Prevent

    Alex Bellamy considers the dynamics of the relationship between conflict and atrocity prevention. He stresses that, while conflict prevention is central to preventing mass atrocities, effective atrocity prevention demands something more - tailored engagement targeting both peacetime atrocities and those committed within a context of armed conflict.

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  • Mass Atrocities and the International Community: The Multilateral Framework for Prevention and Response

    "Operations in Libya and Cote d'Ivoire have reinforced the centrality of the UN Security Council in authorizing coercive responses to mass atrocity threats -- and rightly so. From a legal standpoint, the Security Council remains the sole 'right authority' to sanction the use of force by any state outside the parameters of self-defense. Politically, Security Council approval is even more important." -- from Website

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  • Mass Atrocity Response Operations (MARO) Military Planning Handbook

    The new MARO Military Planning Handbook is the culmination of the MARO Project's efforts over the past two and a half years to develop concepts and tools. It highlights fundamental characteristics that planners and political decision-makers must appreciate as they consider responses to mass atrocity situations, and it explains the associated operational implications. It then walks through several key analytic exercises that are vital to assessing the situation and ensuring the appropriate means to respond with military and other resources.

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  • Meta-Conflict Resolution

    Many conflict resolvers emphasize mediation, dialogue, or problem solving workshops as solutions to conflict. But intractable conflicts usually need a much more comprehensive approach. This article describes such an approach and articulates the various roles that must be carried out to successfully transform these conflicts.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • More Than War

    "The mass extermination of innocent civilians has become emblematic of the depravity of war. A deeper look into the dynamics of the Holocaust (and the many incidents of mass atrocities that preceded and followed), however, reveals a highly complex relationship between armed conflict and mass murder -- one that is neither fully bound nor fully distinct." -- from Website

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  • NC Researchers Propose Health-based Approach to Identify Groups at High Risk of Genocide

    "Researchers from North Carolina State University are proposing a health-based approach to identifying groups at high risk of genocide, in a first-of-its-kind attempt to target international efforts to stop these mass killings before they start...Some risk factors have already been identified, such as severe state oppression of a group or a regional history of genocide. Now researchers are offering a new risk factor for consideration: a population's health and its track record of prenatal care." -- from Website

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  • Peace Operations and the Prevention of Genocide

    "This article discusses the potential and limitations of peace operations in the prevention of genocide. Peace operations encompass a wide range of military and police actions with nontraditional military goals, typically taken under multilateral auspices. These operations have grown in number and complexity in recent years, and current trends point to their playing an ever-growing role with respect to genocide prevention." -- from Website

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  • Preventing Interpersonal Violence

    This essay examines what can be done to prevent violence at the interpersonal and small group level (as opposed to the international level). The prevention of family violence, gang violence, and violence in the schools are examples of topics considered in this essay.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Preventive Diplomacy and International Violence Prevention

    Violence prevention has evolved from being focused almost exclusively on short-term interventions. It now refers to long-term initiatives that target the root causes of conflict.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Public Diplomacy

    Public diplomacy provides a means of influencing foreign publics without the use of force. This brief article describes its history, discusses how it has been used by the U.S. in the "War on Terror," and gives a list of "best practices."

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Raising the Cost of Genocide

    Because it is unlikely that Western leaders will have the vision to recognize that they endanger their countries' long-term vital national interests by allowing genocide, the most realistic hope for combating it lies in the rest of us creating short-term political costs for those who do nothing.

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  • Refugees

    Conflict can cause people to flee an area, either because of intolerable living conditions or forceful expulsion. Such situations can lead to more conflict when refugees try to return home.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Rumor Control

    Rumors spread quickly in escalated conflicts. Here are strategies to slow or stop this process.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Sanctions: Diplomatic Tool, or Warfare by Other Means?

    Sanctions are punishments that are used to try to influence other groups or nation-states' behaviors. Examples are embargoes and prohibitions from attending international events. This essay describes the pluses and minuses of using sanctions to influence another's behavior.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Small Arms Trade

    During the Cold War, nuclear disarmament was a focus; now many policy makers are focusing on weapons of mass destruction. But small arms are actually doing much more harm in current conflicts, and efforts to control the small arms trade deserve priority attention as well.

    Beyond Intractability Essay

  • Understanding Genocide: The Social Psychology of the Holocaust

    The primary focus of this volume is on the Holocaust, but the conclusions reached have relevance for attempts to understand any episode of mass killing. Among the topics covered are how crises and difficult life conditions might set the stage for violent intergroup conflict; why some groups are more likely than others to be selected as scapegoats; how certain cultural values and beliefs could facilitate the initiation of genocide; the roles of conformity and obedience to authority in shaping behavior; how engaging in violent behavior makes it easier to for one to aggress again; the evidence for a "genocide-prone" personality; and how perpetrators deceive themselves about what they have done.

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  • War and Genocide: Organized Killing in Modern Society

    "This comprehensive introduction to the study of war and genocide presents a disturbing case that the potential for slaughter is deeply rooted in the political, economic, social and ideological relations of the modern world." -- from Website

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  • What Does 'Intent to Destroy' in Genocide Mean?

    Genocide is a crime with a double mental element, i.e. a general intent as to the underlying acts, and an ulterior intent with regard to the ultimate aim of the destruction of the group. The prevailing view in the case-law interprets the respective 'intent to destroy' requirement as a special or specific intent stressing its volitional or purpose-based tendency. While this view has been followed for a long time in legal doctrine without further ado, it has recently been challenged by knowledge- and structure-based approaches, which have not received sufficient attention.

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  • World Needs Strategic Approach to Atrocity Prevention

    "The recent referendum on independence in southern Sudan and mounting tensions over the presidential leadership stalemate in the Ivory Coast remind us once again that too many people around the world live their lives under threat of large-scale killing and atrocities. While the immediate vote was generally calm, much of the last decade in Sudan has been aptly described as 'genocide in slow motion.' These crises and others (Congo is a prominent example) evoke the urgent need for a comprehensive international approach to prevent the use of mass violence as a political tool." -- from Website

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