Genocide: The Power and Problems of a Concept

Since the 1980s the study of genocide has exploded, both historically and geographically, to encompass earlier epochs, other continents, and new cases. The concept of genocide has proved its worth, but that expansion has also compounded the tensions between a rigid legal concept and the manifold realities researchers have discovered. The legal and political benefits that accompany genocide status have also reduced complex discussions of historical events to a simplistic binary – is it genocide or not? – a situation often influenced by powerful political pressures. Genocide addresses these tensions and tests the limits of the concept in cases ranging from the role of sexual violence during the Holocaust to state-induced mass starvation in Kazakh and Ukrainian history, while considering what the Armenian, Rwandan, and Burundi experiences reveal about the uses and pitfalls of reading history and conducting politics through the lens of genocide. Contributors examine the pressures that great powers have exerted in shaping the concept; the reaction Raphaël Lemkin, originator of the word "genocide," had to the United Nations' final resolution on the subject; France's long-held choice not to use the concept of genocide in its courtrooms; the role of transformative social projects and use of genocide memory in politics; and the relation of genocide to mass violence targeting specific groups. Throughout, this comprehensive text offers innovative solutions to address the limitations of the genocide concept, while preserving its usefulness as an analytical framework.

About the Author :
Andrea Graziosi is professor of history at Università di Napoli. Frank E. Sysyn is professor of history at the University of Alberta.

Review :
"The field of genocide research has become confusing, even for experts, due to the high number of annual publications. An edited volume that explores the general significance and problems of the concept of genocide across disciplinary boundaries is therefore very welcome. The editors have chosen contributors who are experts in the field, be they seasoned scholars or relative newcomers who have been doing ground-breaking work on the subject. All have a slightly different view and approach to the concept of genocide, which is what makes this book so exciting." Alexa Stiller, University of Zurich and co-editor of Reassessing the Nuremberg Military Tribunals: Transitional Justice, Trial Narratives, and Historiography "[Genocide] deals with the limitations of the concept of genocide from different perspectives and through several case-studies in a skillful way. Overall, it has significant implications for further studies on the politicization of genocide." Cecilia Ducci, International Affairs