Abstract
‘Structural prevention … comprises strategies to address the root causes of deadly conflict,’ observed the Carnegie Commission in the seminal report, Preventing Deadly Conflict (Hamburg and Vance, 1997: 69). This statement succinctly defines the dominant paradigm within research into the causes and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. Extreme violence has been perceived as resulting from the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors or root causes. Prevention, therefore, requires the timely identification and deconstruction of these causal factors. This paradigm has been very successful in identifying a number of the long-term causes of genocide and mass atrocities, such as the presence of an ‘outgroup’ and the existence of internal strife within societies. Similarly, it has led to the identification of a range of preventive actions that may mitigate these risk factors, such as legislation to protect vulnerable minorities. Furthermore, models analysing the presence of risk factors in particular nations have enabled the development of mass atrocity risk lists for early warning purposes. Perhaps because of these successes, the assumptions that underlie the ‘root cause’ approach to the causes and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities have rarely been questioned. Yet analysis suggests that they are both flawed and unnecessarily restrictive.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adler, R. N., et al. (2004) ‘To Prevent, React, and Rebuild: Health Research and the Prevention of Genocide’, Health Services Research, 39 (6), pt 2, 2027-51
Bartoli, A., Ogata, T. and Stanton, G. H. (2009) ‘Emerging Paradigms in Genocide Prevention’, Genocide Prevention (Bern: Federal Department of Foreign Affairs), available at: http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/ Detail/?ots591=0c54e3b3-1e9c-be1e-2c24-a6a8c7060233&lng=en&id=114578 (accessed 22 September 2011)
BBC News (2006) ‘Botswana Bushmen Win Land Ruling’, available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6174709.stm (accessed 11 December 2011)
BBC News (2011) ‘Botswana Bushmen Win Back Rights to Kalahari Water’, available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12300285 (accessed 5 November 2011)
Chalk, F., et al. (2010) Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership to Prevent Mass Atrocities (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Charny, I. (1999) ‘Genocide Early Warning System (GEWS)’, in I. Charny (ed.), Encyclopaedia of Genocide (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO)
Chirot, D. and McCauley, C. (2006) Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press)
Fein, H. (1979) Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimisation during the Holocaust (New York: Free Press)
Fein, H. (1993) ‘Accounting for Genocide after 1945: Theories and Some Findings’, International Journal on Group Rights, 1, 79-106
Genocide Watch (2012) Current Countries at Risk of Genocide, Politicide or Mass Atrocities, available at: http://http//www.genocidewatch.org/alerts/countries atrisk2012.html (accessed 17 July 2012)
Goldstone, J. A. and Ulfelder, J. (2004) ‘How to Construct Stable Democracies’, Washington Quarterly, 28 (1), 9-20
Goldstone, J. A., et al. (2005) ‘A Global Forecasting Model of Political Instability’, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC, available at: http://globalpolicy.gmu.edu/pitf/PITFglobal.pdf (accessed 17 July 2012)
Hamburg, D. (2008) Preventing Genocide: Practical Steps toward Early Detection and Effective Action (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers)
Hamburg, D. and Vance, C. (1997) Preventing Deadly Conflict (New York: Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict)
Harff, B. (2003) ‘No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide and Political Mass Murder since 1955’, American Political Science Review, 97 (1), 57-73
Harff, B. (2012) ‘Assessing Risks of Genocide and Politicide: A Global Watchlist for 2012’, in J. Hewitt, J. Wilkenfield and T. R. Gurr (eds), Peace and Conflict 2012 (Boulder, CO: Paradigm), available at: http://www.gpanet.org/webfm_send/120 (accessed 12 October 2011)
International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) (2001) The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre)
International Panel of Eminent Personalities (2000) Rwanda: The Preventable Genocide, Organisation of African Unity, 7 July, available at: http://www.africa-union.org/official_documents/reports/report_rowanda_genocide.pdf (accessed 17 July 2012)
Kalyvas, S. N. (2003) ‘The Ontology of “Political Violence”: Action and Identity in Civil Wars’, Perspectives on Politics, 1 (3), 475-94
Krain, M. (1997) ‘State-Sponsored Mass Murder: The Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 41 (3), 331-60
Kuper, L. (1981) Genocide: Its Political Use in the Twentieth Century (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press)
Lemarchand, R. (1970) Rwanda and Burundi (New York: Praeger)
Licklider, R. (1995) ‘The Consequences of Negotiated Settlements in Civil Wars, 1945-1993’, American Political Science Review, 89 (3), 681-90
Mayersen, D. (2010) ‘On the Timing of Genocide’, Genocide Studies and Prevention, 5 (1), 20-38
Mayersen, D. and McLoughlin, S. (2011) ‘Risk and Resilience to Mass Atrocities in Africa: A Comparison of Rwanda and Botswana’, Journal of Genocide Research, 13 (3), 247-69
Mazian, F. (1990) Why Genocide? The Armenian and Jewish Experiences in Perspective (Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press)
Melson, R. (1992) Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press)
Midlarsky, M. (2005) The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
Mietzner, M. (2012) ‘Indonesia’s Democratic Stagnation: Anti-Reformist Elites and Resilient Civil Society’, Democratization, 19 (2), 209-29
Minority Rights Group International (2011) ‘Peoples under Threat 2011’, available at: http://www.minorityrights.org/10744/peoples-under-threat/peoples-under-threat-2011.html (accessed 12 October 2011)
Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) (2011a) ‘Analysis Framework’, available at: http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/pdf/osapg_analysis_framework.pdf (accessed 12 October 2011)
Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (OSAPG) (2011b) ‘Preventing Genocide’, available at: http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/ adviser/genocide_prevention.shtml (accessed 12 July 2011)
Richter, E. D., et al. (2006) ‘The Precautionary Principle: Environmental Epidemiology’s Gift to Genocide Prevention’, Epidemiology, 17 (6), S340-1
Rummel, R. J. (1984) Death by Government: Genocide and Mass Murder since 1900 (New Brunswick: Transaction)
Rummel, R. J. (1995) ‘Democracy, Power, Genocide, and Mass Murder’, Journal of Conflict Resolution, 39 (1), 3-26
Schmeidl, S. (1997) ‘Exploring the Causes of Forced Migration: A Pooled Analysis 1971-1990’, Social Science Quarterly, 78 (2), 284-308
Segal, A. (1964) ‘Massacre in Rwanda’, Fabian Research Series, No. 240 (London: Fabian Society)
Semelin, J. (2007) Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide (London: C. Hurst and Co.)
Stanton, G. H. (1998) The 8 Stages of Genocide, available at: http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocide/8stagesofgenocide.html (accessed 17 July 2012)
Stanton, G. H. (2004) ‘Could the Rwandan Genocide Have Been Prevented?’, Journal of Genocide Research, 6 (2), 211-28
Staub, E. (1989) The Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
United Nations (UN) (1964) ‘The Situation in Rwanda and Burundi: Summary of Reports Made to the Secretary-General by Mr. Max H. Dorsinville on His Two Missions to Rwanda and Burundi as the Secretary-General’s Special Representative’, SG/SM/24
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2001) Prevention of Armed Conflict: Report of the Secretary-General, 7 June, A/55/985
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2003) Interim Report of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Armed Conflict, 12 September, A/55/365
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2005) World Summit Outcome Document, 24 October, A/RES/60/1
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2006) Progress Report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict, 18 July, A/60/891
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) (2009) Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, 12 January, A/63/677
Woodward, S. (2007) ‘Do the Root Causes of Civil War Matter? Using Knowledge to Improve Peacebuilding Interventions’, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 1 (2), 143-70
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2013 Stephen McLoughlin and Deborah Mayersen
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
McLoughlin, S., Mayersen, D. (2013). Reconsidering Root Causes. In: Ingelaere, B., Parmentier, S., Jacques Haers, S.J., Segaert, B. (eds) Genocide, Risk and Resilience. Rethinking Political Violence Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137332431_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137332431_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-46172-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-33243-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)