Holocaust and Genocide Studies Commons^™

Failing To End Genocide: Structural Factors, Triggers, And Ineffective Responses, Tutku Ayhan

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Why do ongoing genocides persist despite global condemnation? This paper examines the challenge of ending ongoing genocides and argues that the persistence of genocides can be largely attributed to the interaction of structural factors and triggers with inadequate responses at the national, regional, and international levels. The analysis focuses on the genocidal experiences of the Yezidi and Rohingya communities, which were triggered by the 2014 attacks in Sinjar, Iraq, and the 2017 actions in Rakhine State, Myanmar. By viewing genocide as a process rather than an isolated act of violence and recognizing cultural genocide as genocide, this study aims to …

Conceptualizing Great Power Perpetrators, Federica D'Alessandra

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

For over a decade, shifting geopolitics, a changed global security environment, and countless failures of diplomacy have raised important questions on how to collectively grapple with a widely-perceived “crisis of multilateralism,” and reignited debate on the fitness of the UN Security Council to deliver on its mandate under these circumstances. Among other issues, ongoing polarization when not outright “gridlock” among the Permanent Members (P5) has fueled the Council’s apparent inability to respond to threats to civilian life and to countless mass atrocities around the world. Even worse, as this article argues, some P5 today possess both the willingness and unprecedented …

Bridging The Atrocity Prevention Gap Between The International And The Local: Lessons Learned From Meso-Level Leadership In Ukraine And Syria, Kristina Hook, Jamie D. Wise

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper explores meso-level approaches to atrocity prevention that incorporate a wider array of local expertise at all stages, from early warning to transitional justice. Specifically, we treat meso-level approaches as encompassing local leadership and advocacy across bottom-up processes, grassroots efforts, victim-led activism, and civil society mobilization. We draw from two contemporary cases of mass atrocities, Ukraine and Syria, which exemplify such efforts, using primary interview data with meso-level actors. First, we examine atrocity risk early warning in Ukraine, where prescient local expertise at the meso-level failed to influence international responses, asking what went wrong and what more could be …

Dangerous Speech As An Atrocity Early Warning Indicator: Measuring Changing Conflict Dynamics, Catherine Buerger, Susan Benesch

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Dangerous speech, any expression that can increase the likelihood that someone will commit or condone violence against members of another group, can be a powerful early warning signal of impending mass violence. However, one cannot make a list of words that are dangerous, since the effect of the message depends not only on its content, but also on how it is communicated: by whom, to whom, and under what circumstances. What may be benign in one context may be extremely inflammatory in another. Thus, effective monitoring requires deep knowledge of the local setting and structural factors. The spread of dangerous …

Promoting Resilience To Genocide: An Evidence-Based Approach, Deborah Mayersen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Preventing genocide is more achievable than ever before. In the past two decades, there has been an upsurge in research and resources dedicated to genocide and mass atrocity prevention. There is now substantial knowledge of risk factors for genocide, of current countries at risk of genocide and mass atrocities, and, most importantly, a small but passionate field of practitioners dedicated to prevention. Crucial to their effectiveness, however, is the adoption of evidence-based strategies. One important methodological approach to identifying proven strategies is through comparative analysis of historical case studies of resilience to genocide. From these case studies, in which a …

Revivifying The Responsibility To Protect: Strengthening The Normative Consensus For Atrocity Prevention, Matthew Levinger

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper examines weaknesses in the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, drawing on the scholarly literature on norm diffusion and norm cooptation. Despite having been unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005, the R2P doctrine almost immediately attracted criticism that it reinforced a neocolonial stance by nations of the Global North toward those of the Global South. This critique grew in force during the chaotic aftermath of the 2011 intervention in Libya, which had been authorized as an R2P mission. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas conflict, and the intensifying competition between the United States and China …

Table Of Contents

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Editors' Introduction

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Foreword By The Special Adviser Of The Un Secretary General On The Prevention Of Genocide, Alice W. Nderitu

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Evidence-Based Approaches To Preventing Genocide And Mass Atrocities: Introduction To The Special Issue, Jamie D. Wise, Kristina Hook

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Lessons Learned: Overcoming Obstacles To Inference And Synthesis In Atrocity Prevention Research, Tallan Donine, Daniel Solomon, Lawrence Woocher

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In this paper, we argue that atrocity prevention (AP) researchers face obstacles to inference and knowledge synthesis in the study of AP strategies and tools. We argue that researchers can begin to address obstacles to inference by using rigorous social-science methods and can address obstacles to knowledge synthesis through greater coordination and transparency about concepts, methods, and data. Our argument proceeds in four parts. First, drawing on a systematic review of three decades of research about AP tools, we survey key analytic obstacles to drawing conclusions about the effects of AP policy. Second, we survey four separate methods that researchers …

Leveraging A Multi-Method Approach To Improve Mass Atrocity Forecasting, Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, Trey Billing, Eric W. Schoon

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Forecasting mass atrocities is a central concern for academics, policymakers, and practitioners, but determining where and when mass atrocities will occur is far from straightforward. Over the last few decades, researchers around the world have developed several forecasting models. Some of these models—like the Political Instability Task Force model or the Australia Forecasting Project model—have emphasized quantitative assessments of the risk of mass atrocity. Others—like the UN Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes—have focused on how case-specific factors coalesce to impact the onset of mass atrocity. In this article, we suggest that a multi-methods framework that capitalizes on the strengths …

Contextualized Transitional Justice Policy Development In Uganda: Differentiating Between Normativity Types In Evidence-Based Problem Analysis, Saghar Shahidi Birjandian

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article discusses the fundamental impact of normativity on producing evidence-based guidance for context-sensitive transitional justice policy. It draws on lessons learned from Uganda’s complex transitional justice context and extensive fieldwork to demonstrate the necessity and the means to differentiate between belief-based normativity and evidence-based normativity in conducting problem analysis as a crucial site that determines the integrity of evidence-based guidance. It also establishes that evidence-based normativity guiding problem analysis must include empirical evidence of societal dynamics and views of affected communities or there is a significantly higher risk of belief-based normativity decontextualizing strategy development. Findings establish significant substantive differences …

"Is There Any Possibility That They Might Have Remained Alive?": The George Barlaz Papers And The Search For Family After The Holocaust, Jacob Kahn-Samuelson

Student Publications

The paper explores the topic of American Jews searching for their families after the Holocaust. The paper uses the George Barlaz Papers, to argue that after the Holocaust Jews used Jewish organizations to search for family. Charity organizations like HIAS, Jewish newspapers like The Forward and various Landsmanshaftn were all used by George Barlaz to look for his family. From the search for family, new relationships were formed between searchers and those who were helping them find their family. George Barlaz developed a strong friendship with Moses Feinblüt who helped him search for his family and connect him with the …

Gender And Genocide: Rape As A Weapon Of War In Darfur, Ella Woods

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In instances of genocide, gender and ethnicity intersect in such a way that women of a persecuted group undergo a distinct experience from men. This is evident in the case of Darfur, where women of the region have been subjected to rape, forced pregnancy, and more by the Janjaweed and Sudanese government. This gendered violence is not unique to the genocide in Darfur, but examining its details reveals how the international community can better protect not only women in Darfur, who continue to face violence to this day, but also women who are victims of genocide throughout the world.

From Schmelt Camp To “Little Auschwitz”: Blechhammer’S Role In The Holocaust, Susanne Barth

Purdue University Press Books

From Schmelt Camp to “Little Auschwitz”: Blechhammer’s Role in the Holocaust is the first in-depth study of the second largest Auschwitz subcamp, Blechhammer (Blachownia Śląska), and its lesser known yet significant prehistory as a so-called Schmelt camp, a forced labor camp for Jews operating outside the concentration camp system. Drawing on previously untapped archival documents and a wide array of survivor testimonies, the book provides novel findings on Blechhammer’s role in the Holocaust in Eastern Upper Silesia, a formerly Polish territory annexed to Nazi Germany in the fall of 1939, where 120,000 Jews lived.

Established in the spring of 1942 …

In Defense Of Identity: A Comparative Analysis Of Indigenous Self-Defense Movements In North America, Chloe Cairncross, Dana Dougherty

The Microdynamics of Mass Atrocity Working Paper Series

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of two significant historical events of Indigenous resistance in North America: the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 in Canada and the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973 in the United States. The Métis during the Northwest Rebellion and the Lakota Oglala along with American Indian Movement activists during the Wounded Knee Occupation both sought to assert their rights against encroaching government policies and settler expansion. By examining the actors, agendas, actions, and outcomes of these movements, the paper explores the nuanced nature of self-defense within a settler-colonial context. Comparative analysis highlights the persistent efforts of Indigenous …

Editor's Introduction

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Atrocity Prevention In The Digital Era: Adapting Norms, Laws, And Code To Changes In The Ways Atrocities Are Committed, David J. Simon, Samhitha Josyula, Joshua Lam, Julian D. Melendi

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Emerging digital technologies have changed some of the ways that genocides are planned and executed. This paper examines those differences, calling attention to how changes in the execution of genocide should prompt a shift in the approaches to atrocity prevention. It develops a conceptual framework addressing how atrocity prevention efforts might adapt to new technology within three realms of potential prevention efforts: the ethical (norms), the legal (laws), and the digital (code).

Security Or Vulnerability? The Optics Of Data In The Humanitarian Sphere, Nicole M. Bennett, Hamid Ekbia

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Governments, humanitarian agencies, and non-government organizations increasingly resort to data-driven techniques to meet the challenges they face in dealing with growing mobile populations such as refugees. Such techniques originate in bureaucratic administrations of the 19th century and, even earlier, in slave trade and plantation accounting methods. They were then perfected in logistics and global supply chain management of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, especially with the advent of information technology. We examine the application of these techniques in humanitarian cases, seeking to contextualize them within the framework of logistic security. To understand the drivers of this trend, we introduce the …

Genocide Memorialization Through Law In Bosnia And Herzegovina: Reconciling The Irreconcilable?, Carna Pistan

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article focuses on the law banning genocide denial and other war crimes and the glorification of convicted war criminals imposed in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the former High Representative Valentin Inzko in mid-2021 to facilitate the country’s reconciliation process. It first positions the genocide denial ban into the vast category of memory laws by examining its content and scope, as well as the reactions and consequences it has provoked up to now. The article maintains that an internationally imposed memory law cannot create reconciliation in a deeply divided society. It shows, on the contrary, that the imposed legislation has …

From “Total Destruction” To “Total Dictatorship”: The Influence Of Ernst Jünger’S Visionary Fascism, Nick Schiff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper seeks to answer one central question: How can the life and work of Ernst Jünger help illuminate the development of fascist ideas, culture, politics, and power across Europe from 1920-1945? The components of that question are: what were the core elements of Jünger’s aesthetics, morality, and politics? How did he synthesize these elements to create his influential vision of German fascism? What were Jünger’s interactions and exchanges with other European fascists, as well as influential Nazis including Carl Schmitt, Joseph Goebbels, and Adolph Hitler himself? How did Jünger’s new Fascist politics and aesthetics affect them? I argue that …

Cooking In Times Of Oppression, Dorota Koczanowicz

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

In 2017, Marije Vogelzang's interactive performance at the Museum of Rotterdam, 'Black Confectti', was designed to enable the experience of a difficult wartime past. Using authentic recipes from the war press, she prepared dishes based on the creativity of the crisis. In the face of starvation and the struggle for life, the selflessness of creative action in the kitchen and the effort of documentation in the form of recipes from the past and culinary fantasies from the past proved to be a helpful tool for surviving the most oppressive situation. The effectiveness of this strategy is clearly demonstrated not only …

The Holocaust's Legacy: Influencing Jewish Political Identity, Jordan Eskew

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis addresses the intricate relationship between the historical persecution of the Holocaust and its enduring influence on contemporary Jewish political engagement, a subject of significant contemporary relevance in political and international relations. Despite broad recognition of the Holocaust’s impact, the specific ways in which its memory affects Jewish political attitudes and actions around the world in the modern day have not been sufficiently thoroughly examined. Utilizing qualitative methods, including interviews with 20 individuals—public figures, Holocaust survivors, their descendants, and broader members of the Jewish diaspora— this study focuses on understanding the interplay between historical trauma, community cohesion, and the …

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Teresa Langness, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Dr. Susan Osborn, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Rodney Paul Gilliam, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Mary Larson, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Dr. Mimi Silbert, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.

Moral Exemplars Of Note - Kevin Morris, Sam And Pearl Oliner

Moral Exemplars Study

No abstract provided.