Making and unmaking nations: war, leadership, and genocide in modern Africa
In: Cornell paperbacks
68 Ergebnisse
Sortierung:
In: Cornell paperbacks
World Affairs Online
"Challenging the prevailing wisdom, Straus provides substantial new evidence about local patterns of violence, using original research - including the most comprehensive surveys yet undertaken among convicted perpetrators - to assess competing theories about the causes and dynamics of the genocide. Current interpretations stress three main causes for the genocide: ethnic identity, ideology, and mass-media indoctrination (in particular the influence of hate radio). Straus's research does not deny the importance of ethnicity, but he finds that it operated more as a background condition. Instead, Straus emphasizes fear and intra-ethnic intimidation as the primary drivers of the violence. A defensive civil war and the assassination of a president created a feeling of acute insecurity. Rwanda's unusually effective state was also central, as was the country's geography and population density, which limited the number of exit options for both victims and perpetrators. In conclusion, Straus steps back from the particulars of the Rwandan genocide to offer a new, dynamic model for understanding other instances of genocide in recent history -- the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia, the Balkans -- and assessing the future likelihood of such events."--Jacket
In: Violence: an international journal, Band 3, Heft 1, S. 100-104
ISSN: 2633-0032
In: Violence: an international journal, Band 3, Heft 1, S. 3-10
ISSN: 2633-0032
In: Perspectives on politics, Band 19, Heft 1, S. 300-302
ISSN: 1541-0986
In: The American journal of sociology, Band 126, Heft 3, S. 718-720
ISSN: 1537-5390
In: Perspectives on politics, Band 14, Heft 1, S. 203-204
ISSN: 1541-0986
In: Perspectives on politics, Band 14, Heft 1, S. 204-206
ISSN: 1541-0986
In: Politics and governance, Band 3, Heft 3, S. 5-15
ISSN: 2183-2463
The concept of "triggers" enjoys wide usage in the atrocity prevention policymaking community. However, the concept has received limited academic analysis. This paper reviews the concept critically, develops a definition, and subjects the concept to empirical analysis. The paper offers a mild endorsement of the concept of triggers of atrocity. The paper identifies four main categories of triggering event but cautions that triggers cannot be separated from context or decision-makers.
In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Band 122, Heft 487, S. e27-e29
ISSN: 1468-2621
In: Perspectives on politics, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 343-362
ISSN: 1541-0986
The research problem driving this paper is the absence of a strong theory that accounts for variation among cases that have similar probabilities of escalating to genocide and similar forms of organized (usually state-led) mass violence against civilians. Much of the existing theory on genocide focuses on explaining under what conditions and by what processes regimes commit large-scale violence against civilians. I argue that a critical missing dimension to studies of genocide, but also more generally to the study of political violence, is a methodological recognition of negative cases and a theoretical recognition of the dynamics of restraint that helps to explain such negative cases. That is, in addition to asking what causes leaders to choose to escalate violence, I argue that scholars should emphasize conditions that prompt moderation, de-escalation, or non-escalation. I propose an alternative framework for how to conceptualize the process of political violence and review the literature to identify key restraint mechanisms at micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis. I further articulate a provisional theory of genocide using this new analytical framework. I illustrate my argument with an empirical analysis of mass violence cases in Sub-Saharan Africa since independence, and with a more in-depth analysis of comparable crises in Rwanda and Côte d'Ivoire, where the trajectories of violence differed significantly. While this paper draws on extensive empirical research, my primary purpose is not to advance a developed new theory or to test particular hypotheses, but rather to outline a research agenda that promises to draw from and contribute to recent work on the comparative politics of violence.
In: Terrorism and political violence, Band 24, Heft 4, S. 544-560
ISSN: 1556-1836
In: Perspectives on politics: a political science public sphere, Band 10, Heft 2, S. 343-362
ISSN: 1537-5927
World Affairs Online
In: African affairs: the journal of the Royal African Society, Band 111, Heft 443, S. 179-201
ISSN: 0001-9909
World Affairs Online