Responding to Modern Genocide ─ At the Confluence of Law and Politics

This book provides an overview of attempted responses to genocide incorporating brief situation studies to illustrate the consequences of these forces. It comprehensively examines the inherent political, legal and economic ramifications of modern counter-genocide efforts and project and appraise the future of these efforts predicated upon current trend lines. The book analyses various incidences of genocide and mass atrocities including the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Sudan, Uganda and Sierra Leone. Drawing on these examples, this work identifies trends, issues and initiatives to provide an overview of the forces that shape genocide remediation and prevention.

The books adopts a conceptual model that reveals the political factors that impact the international law of genocide and lay bare state motives for compliance or non-compliance. Post-genocidal political responses including barriers and catalysts to transitional justice and the politics of genocide denial are emphasised. It will also review situations of genocide and other mass atrocity that merit little or no acknowledgment or international response where ignorance itself is politically expedient. In this way it provides a focused picture of those influences and their significance to genocide studies.