PPE3045 – Genocide in Theory and Practice
Genocides are seen as abhorrent acts committed by a deranged minority, the result of a ‘dark side’ of human behaviour that is unethical, exceptional and irrational.
This course challenges this view, investigates the sources of mass killings in history, and asks the question: ‘Why genocide?’ Using some of the most tragic examples of ethnic cleansing like colonial genocides, Armenia, the Nazi Holocaust, Cambodia, Yugoslavia and Rwanda, the course suggests that extreme political violence and ethnic extermination are not the work of ‘evil elites’ or ‘primitives’, but the result of complex interactions between leaders, militants and ‘ordinary’ persons.
This aspect of ‘normal’ people becoming the perpetrators of ‘evil’ acts matters, for not only were most episodes of genocide seen as perfectly ‘moral’ by those who committed them; this ethical perception was an essential condition for these acts to take place. In the hope that our understanding of these processes will help us avoid genocide in the future, the course explores the causes, triggers, domestic and international context, implementation, nature and uses of genocide as a political phenomenon.
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
- Understand the unique nature of the term ‘genocide’;
- Grasp the underlying logic of genocidal violence;
- Differentiate between ethnic cleansing and genocide;
- Understand the role of the state in genocide;
- Be familiar with the historical cases of both ethnic massacres and genocides;
- Understand the role of nationalism and democracy in developing genocidal policies;
- Examine how political leaders and ordinary people come to make genocidal decisions;
- Understand the role of the media in legitimizing ethnic massacres and genocides;
- Understand the role played by ethics in the legitimization of genocide.