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Human Rights? What A Good Idea! From Universal Jurisdiction To Crime Prevention, Daniel Feierstein Dec 2019

Human Rights? What A Good Idea! From Universal Jurisdiction To Crime Prevention, Daniel Feierstein

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Over the last decades, Genocide Studies has entered in a “comfort zone.” With fellowships and support from governments or NGOs, we have developed a very comfortable environment in which the knowledge we produce about genocide prevention is neither critical nor useful. We have become trapped by assumptions we have never checked against reality and many of us have chosen to work inside the circle of those assumptions: genocide and mass violence are horrible acts committed by horrible people; we cannot stand by and do nothing; we have the responsibility to protect civilian populations and that responsibility takes the form, as …


Scenarios Of Intractability: Reframing Intractable Conflict And Its Transformation, Kerry Whigham Dec 2019

Scenarios Of Intractability: Reframing Intractable Conflict And Its Transformation, Kerry Whigham

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

For those working toward long-term conflict transformation and atrocity prevention, cases of so-called “intractable conflict” are an enduring source of frustration, continually resisting what seems to be an otherwise useful toolbox of "lessons learnt" and "best practices." Referring to these cases as intractable, however, only serves to naturalize their intractability, rendering it an essential and immutable quality of the conflicts, and thus foreclosing options for engagement and prevention. Moreover, it obscures interventions that may have already emerged from within these conflicts that are transforming the way they play out. This article suggests, instead, to perceive these cases as scenarios of …


The First Lesson In Prevention, Alexander L. Hinton Dec 2019

The First Lesson In Prevention, Alexander L. Hinton

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Despite its rapid proliferation over the past fifteen years, genocide and atrocity crimes prevention studies are often blinded by normative assumptions and conceptual blinder. This essay argues that any effort at prevention must begin with a first critical lesson, one revealed in the essay’s opening line and writing style. This first lesson suggests a path toward a more critical prevention studies, one involving critique, archeology, and pharmakon. In addition to discussing such conceptual bases for a critical prevention studies, this essay also models how literary strategies, ranging from narrative to poetic form, may help with such a critical endeavor, opening …


Moving Beyond The State: An Imperative For Genocide Prediction, Hollie Nyseth Brehm Dec 2019

Moving Beyond The State: An Imperative For Genocide Prediction, Hollie Nyseth Brehm

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Studies of the onset of genocide and accompanying early warning and forecasting efforts have focused almost exclusively on states. This article suggests that genocide prediction must move beyond a purely state-centric approach. Specifically, I suggest three major avenues that will refine and complement existing research and related prediction efforts. These include 1) theorizing and analyzing non-state actors who commit genocide, 2) engaging in conflict-centered approaches, and 3) addressing the onset and triggers of genocide within subnational spaces. I conclude with a discussion of how these three avenues can be pursued simultaneously to inform more robust genocide prevention endeavors.


Film Review: The Trial Of Ratko Mladić, Iva Vukušić Dec 2019

Film Review: The Trial Of Ratko Mladić, Iva Vukušić

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Transnational Advocacy: Genocide Or Terrorism?, Terrence Lyons Jun 2019

Transnational Advocacy: Genocide Or Terrorism?, Terrence Lyons

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Book Review: Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide In Rwanda And Its Aftermath In Photography And Documentary Film, Scott Ahearn Jun 2019

Book Review: Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide In Rwanda And Its Aftermath In Photography And Documentary Film, Scott Ahearn

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

As Rwanda marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the genocide this spring, Piotr Cieplak’s book, Death, Image, Memory: The Genocide in Rwanda and its Aftermath in Photography and Documentation, is timely as an exploration of the documentary imagery developed since 1994 and its “uncomfortable coexistence with the genocide and its aftermath.” His book looks at still and video images from Westerners and Rwandans alike, and examines the ways in which these images succeed or fall short in bringing identity and remembrance to the victims of the genocide.


Film Review: The Uncondemned, Jessica M. Adach Jun 2019

Film Review: The Uncondemned, Jessica M. Adach

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Film Review of The Uncondemned


Film Review: A Snake Gives Birth To A Snake, Juan Pablo Artinian Jun 2019

Film Review: A Snake Gives Birth To A Snake, Juan Pablo Artinian

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Michael Lessac's 2014 documentary “A snake gives Birth to a Snake” from 2014 discusses a less explored topic: the relationship between the work of truth commissions (following the example of South Africa) and the ways art can help do this work of conflict resolution through a in various places where there were serious violations of human rights


Three Theoretical Approaches To Lemkin’S Definition Of Genocide, Jonathan Hobson Apr 2019

Three Theoretical Approaches To Lemkin’S Definition Of Genocide, Jonathan Hobson

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper is an exploration of genocide prosecutions since the inception of the term in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, its legal definition by the United Nations in 1948, and the eventual establishing of the International Criminal Court in 1998. The paper is in three parts. The first part examines the history of genocide legislation, particularly the international legal frameworks established since Lemkin first devised the term in 1944. The second part details, for the first time, the extent of genocide prosecutions to date. To do so, it employs material from various international criminal tribunals, the International Criminal Court, national courts, …


The Complicated Cases Of Soghomon Tehlirian And Sholem Schwartzbard And Their Influences On Raphaël Lemkin's Thinking About Genocide, Steven Leonard Jacobs Apr 2019

The Complicated Cases Of Soghomon Tehlirian And Sholem Schwartzbard And Their Influences On Raphaël Lemkin's Thinking About Genocide, Steven Leonard Jacobs

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article is an examination of the persons and trials of Soghomon Tehlirian and Sholem Schwartzbard, their political assassinations as acts of vengeance for genocide and pogroms, their trials and subsequent acquittals. It is also an examination of the influences of these two events on the evolved thinking of Raphael Lemkin on his conceptualization of the needs for an international law contra genocide. Finally, it also elaborates on what information is now available on both men and their associations, and what was known and unknown to Lemkin and whether or not these two cases remained centrally important to his understandings.


The Black Freedom Movement And The Politics Of The Anti-Genocide Norm In The United States, 1951 - 1967, Daniel E. Solomon Apr 2019

The Black Freedom Movement And The Politics Of The Anti-Genocide Norm In The United States, 1951 - 1967, Daniel E. Solomon

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article explores the political uses of the anti-genocide norm by black freedom activists in the United States between 1951, when the Civil Rights Congress petitioned the United Nations with evidence of genocide against black Americans, and 1967, when the topic of genocide returned to mainstream public debate with the beginning of William Proxmire’s campaign for US ratification of the Convention. Using public speeches and pamphlets of the US black freedom movement, and private documentation by movement activists, this paper demonstrates how black activists used the nascent anti-genocide norm to (1) critique the relationship between the US government’s role in …


The Mass Murder Of The European Jews And The Concept Of ‘Genocide’ In The Nuremberg Trials: Reassessing Raphaël Lemkin’S Impact, Alexa Stiller Apr 2019

The Mass Murder Of The European Jews And The Concept Of ‘Genocide’ In The Nuremberg Trials: Reassessing Raphaël Lemkin’S Impact, Alexa Stiller

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Nuremberg’s prosecutors prominently used Lemkin’s genocide concept. They also dealt in detail with the mass murder of Europe’s Jews. However, for them ‘genocide’ and the Holocaust were not congruent. They used different definitions of Lemkin’s concept and interpreted the relationship between the mass murder of the European Jews and the entire mass violence of the Nazis differently. Lemkin had little influence on the application of his concept in the Nuremberg trials between 1945 and 1949. The implementation of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention put an end to the broad use of the original concept from 1944. Although both Lemkin …


Book Review: Forced Confrontation: The Politics Of Dead Bodies In Germany At The End Of World War Ii, Christiane K. Alsop Apr 2019

Book Review: Forced Confrontation: The Politics Of Dead Bodies In Germany At The End Of World War Ii, Christiane K. Alsop

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Editor's Introduction Apr 2019

Editor's Introduction

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.


Between Hagiography And Wounded Attachment: Raphaël Lemkin And The Study Of Genocide, Benjamin Meiches, Jeff Benvenuto Apr 2019

Between Hagiography And Wounded Attachment: Raphaël Lemkin And The Study Of Genocide, Benjamin Meiches, Jeff Benvenuto

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In this article, we outline the significance of the special issue on the scholarship of Raphaël Lemkin. We argue that genocide scholars tend to identify with one of three different types of Lemkin scholarship. Each of the articles for the special issue challenges these genres in an effort to extend the study of genocide in new directions. Moreover, we contend that this work suggests that genocide scholars should endeavor to extend the study of genocide beyond Lemkin's vision and writings.


Legible Testimonies: Raphaël Lemkin, The Victim’S Voice, And The Global History Of Genocide, Charlotte Kiechel Apr 2019

Legible Testimonies: Raphaël Lemkin, The Victim’S Voice, And The Global History Of Genocide, Charlotte Kiechel

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article offers a new portrait of Raphael Lemkin, as a historian of mass violence. It argues that, in contrast to recent characterizations that focus on Lemkin’s methodological amateurism, Lemkin was in fact highly attentive to the “Historian’s Craft.” Moreover, he was invested in employing a specific approach in writing his global History of Genocide. This approach revolved around his interest in psychology and frequently depended upon his psychologically attentive readings of testimonies. After detailing Lemkin’s psycho-cultural approach, this article compares his use and readings of victim testimony in his writings on mass violence in Western and non-Western societies. …