This course at Columbia University examines mass killing and genocide with the goal of identifying characteristics, analyzing history, and applying lessons to prevention. It will cover topics like identity, causes of mass violence, case studies of genocide, and challenges of counterinsurgency. Assessment will include exams, a simulation, and a research paper. Required readings explore issues like strategic logic of mass killing, Rwanda, Darfur, and insurgency/counterinsurgency, with the aim of understanding these phenomena and improving early warning systems to mitigate future atrocities.

1. COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS
EARLY ACTION: PREVENTING MASS KILLING AND GENOCIDE
SPRING 2010
Classes meet in the International Affairs Building, Rm. on , :00PM to :00PM.
Instructor: Mark Whitlock maw2127@columbia.edu Room 1504 IAB
International Affairs Building Office Hours:
420 West 118th Street
Background
th
Mass Killing and Genocide are extraordinarily destructive. The 20 century marked a period of extreme state-
orchestrated violence against civilians. Signs of impending mass killing and genocide were not identified,
appreciated, or acted upon to sufficiently protect potential victim groups. As these two phenomena are the product of
human action, they can be understood, identified, and prevented.
Themes
Mass Killing and Genocide as distinct phenomena in the 20th Century. Prevention in the 21st Century – challenges
and possibilities.
Questions animating the course include: What role does identity play in political violence? What are the causes of
mass killing and genocide, and how are these phenomena related to war? Why do some states adopt strategies of
mass killing and genocide while others do not? Is it possible to prevent genocide, and if so, what would early
warning systems look like? What are possible strategies for mitigating the underlying causes of mass killing and
genocide, and what prospects do they have in the international arena? Is the world more or less prone to this type of
violence in the future?
Objectives
The objectives of this course are to examine mass, identity-based political violence perpetrated against civilians and
non-combatants. By the end of the course, students will be able to:
Identify characteristics that define mass killing and genocide as distinct phenomena
-
Analyze the history of mass killing and genocide with a specific focus on the 20th century
-
Isolate missed opportunities for prevention from select 20th century case studies
-
Analyze contemporary early warning indicator systems
-
Synthesize this knowledge and apply the ‘strategic logic’ methodology to contemporary cases that could
-
lead to mass killing and genocide
Apply policy options for prevention while contextualizing core issues of sovereignty and political will.
-
*Special emphasis will be placed on understanding insurgency and the strategic logic of mass killing.
Requirements and Assessment
Students will be required to do assigned readings and participate in class discussion. Page numbers for each
reading and each week are included to help with time allocation. There will be a mid-term written exam covering
the readings and discussion. Students will also participate in an experimental genocide prevention simulation.
Assessment will be based on the quality of thought justifying their decision-making process. Lastly, students will
prepare a 15-20 page research paper on a topic of current relevance due at the end of the term.
Assessment breakdown is as follows: Class participation 10%, mid-term exam 30%, Simulation 20%, 15-20 page
research paper 40%.

2. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT:
The School of International & Public Affairs does not tolerate cheating and/or plagiarism in any form. Those students
who violate the Code of Academic & Professional Conduct will be subject to the Dean’s Disciplinary Procedures.
The Code of Academic & Professional Conduct can be viewed online at:
http://sipa.columbia.edu/resources_services/student_affairs/academic_policies/deans_discipline_policy.html
Please familiarize yourself with the proper methods of citation and attribution. The School provides some useful
resources online; we strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself with these various styles before conducting your
research:
http://sipa.columbia.edu/resources_services/student_affairs/academic_policies/code_of_conduct.html
Violations of the Code of Academic & Professional Conduct should be reported to the Associate Dean for Student
Affairs.
BOOKS TO PURCHASE
Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur Ben Kiernan, New
•
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007
Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide Jacques Semelin, New York: Columbia
•
University Press, 2007
Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century Benjamin A. Valentino, Ithaca, NY: Cornell
•
University Press, 2004
Keeping the Peace: Lasting Solutions to Ethnic Conflict Daniel L. Byman, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns
•
Hopkins University Press, 2002
Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, New York: Anchor Books, 2007
•
RECOMMENDED TO PURCHASE
The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda Scott Straus, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
•
2006
The Rwanda Crisis: History of a Genocide Gérard Prunier, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
•
A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide Samantha Power, New York: Perennial, 2003
•
Books will be ordered at the Columbia Bookstore and are available online through various websites such as
Amazon.com. All other course readings will be available from Butler or Lehman Library or through Courseworks
online. I have listed several core documents below that students may also wish to print for future reference.
*Note on Half of a Yellow Sun:
You should begin reading Half of a Yellow Sun immediately. Students should have read up to chapter 9 by session 5
on Insurgency (the week of October 6).
PDFs
UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
•
www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
Sovereignty as Responsibility (link to book website)
•
http://www.brookings.edu/press/Books/1996/sovrnty.aspx
Responsibility to Protect (R2P) http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf
•
2005 UN World Summit - Outcome Document. (Paragraphs 138 and 139 address R2P)
•
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf?OpenElement
Preventing Genocide: A Blueprint for US Policymakers - The Report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force
•
http://www.usip.org/genocide_taskforce/
Implementing the Responsibility to Protect – Report of the Secretary General (General Distribution - January
•
12, 2009) – Available in PDF on course website.
2

3. Schedule of classes and readings:
Sept. 8th
Session I: THE CURSE OF “OTHERNESS”?
Identity – cultural and political, individual and group.
Is it primordial, constructed, manipulable? What role does it play in genocide and mass killing?
REQUIRED: [165 total pages]
Fredrik Barth, “Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Cultural Difference” Introduction
9-38 [29] (Primordialism)
Anthony Smith, The Ethnic Origins of Nations Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986 ch. 1-3 [60] (Perennialism)
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism New York:
Verso, 2006. ch. 1-3 [46]
Daniel Byman, Keeping the Peace, ch. 5. 100-124 [30]
UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Eugene Weber, Peasants into Frenchmen: The Modernization of Rural France, 1870-1914 Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1976. (Modernization School)
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality New York: Cambridge
University Press, 1992.
David Laitin, Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change Among the Yoruba Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986.
Alessandro Portelli, The Order has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in
Rome Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2003.
Sept. 15th
Session II: MASS KILLING AND GENOCIDE
What are mass killing and genocide? What are the causes? Is there a strategic logic?
How is prevention different from intervention or stoppage?
REQUIRED: [251]
Henry R. Huttenbach, “Can Genocide Be Prevented?” A Pessimist’s prescription. In The Aegis Review on
Genocide, Vol. 1, no.2. 2003/4, pp.7-9. [2]
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil Introduction [40]
Daniel Byman, Keeping the Peace, ch. 2. 13-43 [30]
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Introduction and ch 1 – 3. [90]
Jacques Semelin, Purify and Destroy Introduction and ch 1. and 308-324 [67]
Joseph Montville, “The Pathology and Prevention of Genocide” in The Psychodynamics of International
Relationships: Concepts and Theories Lexington Books pp. 121-143 [22]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, 2002, ch.1-5.
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions ch. 4. (skim chapter on Communist Mass Killings)
Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in
Poland New York: Harper Perennial, 1998
3

4. Sept. 22nd
Session III: ETHNIC MASS KILLING
Genocide as a distinct phenomenon
Armenia, Nazi Germany, Serbia
REQUIRED: [165]
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Chapter 5: pp. 152-178 and 187-195. [33]
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, ch. 10-11 (pp. 395-454) [59]
Jacques Semelin, Purify and Destroy ch. IV 165-238 [73]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Vakan N. Dadrian, The History of the Armenian Genocide Oxford: Berghan, 1995. Pp. 113-176 and 201-247
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide Perennial, 2002, ch. 9 (Bosnia)
and ch. 11 (Srebrenica).
Sept. 29th
Session IV: RWANDA – A CASE STUDY
The 1994 Mass Killing in Rwanda occurred in the context of a civil war. The class session will explore the
background to the genocide by examining the history of the conflict, the motivations of the perpetrators in
1994, and attempt to frame this event at the center of the ongoing violence in the Great Lakes Region of
Central Africa.
REQUIRED: [229]
Gérard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis New York: Columbia University Press, 1995
Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006 Introduction, ch. 1 and 6
(pp. 1-40 and 153-174). [61] (skim ch. 2-3)
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Chapter 5: pp. 178-187. [9]
Séverine Autesserre, “The Trouble with Congo: How local Disputes Fuel Regional Conflict” Foreign Affairs
May/June 2008 [9].
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Gérard Prunier, Africa’s World War: Congo, The Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental
Catastrophe New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 (Regional events since 1994)
Jean-Pierre Chrétien The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History New York: Zone Books,
2003
Christopher Taylor, Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994 New York: Berg, 1999.
Alison Des Forges et al, Genocide in Rwanda, New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/
René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnocide as Discourse New York: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1994
African Rights: Rwanda: Death, Despair, Defiance London: African Rights, 1994
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, ch. 15.
Mahmood Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers: Colonialism, Nativism, and the Genocide in Rwanda
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Perennial, 2002, ch. 10 (Rwanda)
Gil Courtemanche Un Dimanche à la piscine à Kigali Montréal: Editions du Boréal, 2000 translated as A
Sunday at the Pool in Kigali New York: Knopf, 2003. (Novel)
4

5. October 6th
Session V: INSURGENCY
What are the causes of insurgency?
The logic of violence in civil war.
REQUIRED: [215]
The US Army * Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manuel: US Army Field Manual No. 3-24 Marine
Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5. University of Chicago Press, 2007
Foreword by John Nagle, Introduction by Sarah Sewall, Foreword, Preface, Introduction [41]
Stathis Kalyvas, The Logic of Violence in Civil War New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006 ch. 1 and 6
[54]
James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War” The American Political
Science Review, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Feb., 2003), pp. 75-90 [15] http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3118222.pdf
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007 Introduction (pp. 1-24) and ch. 6 (pp. 198-259) [85]
Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein. “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War”,
The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Apr., 2008), pp. 436-455 [20]
http://www.columbia.edu/~mh2245/papers1/who_fights.pdf
*Check-in on Half of a Yellow Sun
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007
Mao Tse-Tung On Guerrilla Warfare New York: Praeger, 1961
Franklin A. Lindsey “Unconventional Warfare” Foreign Affairs Vol. 40, No. 2 (January 1962)
October 13th
Session VI: COUNTERINSURGENCY
Counterinsurgency and anti-insurgency – characteristics and delineation.
Do the nature of anti-insurgency campaigns incentivize mass killing?
REQUIRED: [237]
Robert Harkavy and Stephanie Neuman, Warfare and the Third World New York: Palgrave, 2001 ch. 5 (pp.
189–254). [65]
The US Army * Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manuel: US Army Field Manual No. 3-24 Marine
Corps Warfighting Publication No. 3-33.5. University of Chicago Press, 2007 ch. 1 [52]
Gérard Prunier, Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007
ch. 3–4 (pp. 54-123) [69] (skim first two chapters for history of Darfur)
Mahmood Mamdani, “The Politics of Naming: Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency” London Review of Books,
March 8, 2007 [14] http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n05/mamd01_.html
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Ch 6. (pp. 196-233) [37]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Gebru Tareke, “From Lash to Red Star: The Pitfalls of Counter-Insurgency in Ethiopia, 1980-82”, Journal of
Modern African Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3 (September 2002) pp. 465-498. [33]
Hugo Slim, Killing Civilians: Method, Madness, and Morality in War New York: Columbia University
Press, 2008
Session VII
Tuesday, October 20: Mid-Term Examination
5

6. October 27th
Session VIII: EARLY WARNING
How is early warning for mass killing and genocide different from conflict early warning?
What systems for early warning exist?
What role does political will play in decision making, and moving from early warning to early action?
Office of the Special Advisor to the Secretary General (SASG) for the Prevention of Genocide.
REQUIRED: [110]
Barbara Harff, “No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust?”, The American Political Science Review, Vol. 52,
No. 2 (Apr., 2003), pp. 436-455 [20]
Greg Stanton quot;The Eight Stages of Genocidequot; [10] http://www.genocidewatch.org/8stages1996.htm
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics Princeton, NJ: Princeton University
Press, 1976 Ch. 11 (pp. 382–406). [24] (on Cognitive Dissonance)
Lawrence Woocher, quot;Deconstructing 'Political Will': Explaining the Failure to Prevent Deadly Conflict and
Mass Atrocitiesquot;, Journal of Public and International Affairs (2001). pp. 179-206 [27].
http://www.princeton.edu/~jpia/pdf2001/Vol12_Spring01_10.pdf
Benjamin Valentino quot;Still Standing By: Why America and the International Community Fail to Prevent
Genocide and Mass Killingquot; Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Sep., 2003), pp. 565-578 [13]
‘Statement by the Special Adviser of the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide, Mr. Francis
Deng, on the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo – 12 December 2008’ and ‘Response from the
Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect’ (Provided in Class)
The Report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force Ch. 2 (pp. 17-33) [16]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
Robert David Steele, “Virtual Intelligence: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution Through Information
Peacekeeping” United States Institute of Peace.
http://www.usip.org/virtualdiplomacy/publications/papers/virintell.html
Peter Wallensteen and Frida Moeller, “Conflict Prevention: Methodology for Knowing the Unknown.”
Uppsala Peace Research Paper, no.7, 2004. http://www.pcr.uu.se/publications/UPRP_pdf/UPRP_No._7.pdf
John G. Cockell “Early Warnings Analysis and Policy Planning in UN preventive Action.” In David Carment
and Albrecht Schnabel (eds) Conflict Prevention United Nations University Press, 2003, pp.182-206.
Fund For Peace: Failed States Index – CAST system
http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=105&Itemid=141
SASG Framework for Early Warning
Minority Rights Group: http://www.minorityrights.org/publications
November 3rd
Session IX: EARLY WARNING CONTINUED
ECOWARN – A sub-regional case study
Do regional and sub-regional response mechanisms hold greater promise for prevention than the UN Security
Council?
What role can Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) play in early warning, prevention, and peacebuilding?
REQUIRED: [187]
Adekeye Adebajo, Liberia’s Civil War: Nigeria ECOMOG and Regional Security in West Africa Boulder,
Colorado: Lynne Reinner Publishers, 2002. [80]
Adekeye Adebajo and Michael E. O'Hanlon, quot;Africa: Toward a Rapid-Reaction Forcequot;, SAIS Review 17.2
(1997) 153-164 [10]
“Protocol Relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and
Securityquot; Lomé, Togo, December 10, 1999. [15]
6

7. http://www.comm.ecowas.int/sec/index.php?id=protocole&lang=en
“Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance Supplementary to the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism
for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Securityquot; Dakar, Senegal, December
2001. [10] http://www.comm.ecowas.int/sec/index.php?id=ap101299&lang=en
Siddhartha Mitter, “Ebony and Ivoirité: War and Peace in Ivory Coast” Transition Magazine Issue 94
(Volume 12, Number 4), 2003, pp. 30-55 [25]
http://www.transitionmagazine.com/articles/ebony.htm
Kwesi Aning, “Africa: Confronting Complex Threats” IPI: Coping with Crisis Working Paper series, Feb.
2007 [12] http://www.ipacademy.org/asset/file/139/IPA_P-RPT-AFRICA_Final.pdf
John Mark Opoku, quot;West African Conflict Early Warning and Early Response System: The Role of Civil
Society Organizations” Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) Paper, No. 19
September 2007 [15] http://www.kaiptc.org/_upload/general/KAIPTC_11.pdf
SUPPLEMENTAL:
ECOWAS website: http://www.ecowas.int
West Africa Network for Peace (WANEP) website: http://www.wanep.org
November 10th
Session X: SIMULATION BEGINS
Introduction and complete background to the early warning simulation.
Students will receive documentation related to the simulation and be assigned roles.
November 17th
Session XI: AN INTERNATIONAL NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR THE
PREVENTION OF MASS KILLING AND GENOCIDE?
Two intellectual paths in the 1990s - Humanitarian Intervention and Sovereignty as Responsibility - have
paved the way for the current debate surrounding the Responsibility to Protect.
A Pragmatic Approach to Human Rights.
Simulation continues (Feedback and Turn 2)
REQUIRED: [341]
Thomas Weiss, Humanitarian Intervention, London: Polity Press, 2007 introduction, ch. 1, 3, and 4. [92]
“Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty” ICISS 2001. Responsibility
to Protect (R2P) Forward, Synopsis and pages 1-37 [37] (skim rest)
http://www.iciss.ca/pdf/Commission-Report.pdf
2005 UN World Summit - Outcome Document. (Paragraphs 138 and 139 address R2P) [1]
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N05/487/60/PDF/N0548760.pdf?OpenElement
Gareth Evans The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All Washington,
DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008 [91] (more to come)
Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink, “International Norm Dynamics and Political Change” International
Organization, Vol. 52, No. 4, Autumn, 1998, pp. 887-917 [31]
Suzanne Katzenstein and Jack Snyder “Expediency of the Angels” The National Interest; Mar/Apr 2009;
100; pg. 58 – 65 [8]
Alan Kuperman quot;The Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention: Lessons from the Balkans” International
Studies Quarterly Vol. 52 2008 pp. 49-80 [31]
The Report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force Ch. 6 (pp. 93-110) [17]
Implementing the Responsibility to Protect – Report of the Secretary General [33]
7

8. SUPPLEMENTAL :
Francis Deng, Sadikiel Kimaro, Terrence Lyons, Donald Rothchild, and William I. Zartman Sovereignty as
Responsibility Conflict Management in Africa Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1996.
Ramesh Thakur The United Nations, Peace and Security: From Collective Security to the Responsibility to
Protect Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006
Victoria Holt and Tobias Berkman The Impossible Mandate? Military Preparedness, the Responsibility
to Protect and Modern Peace Operations Washington, DC: Stimson Center, 2006
Edward C. Luck “Prevention: Theory and Practice” In From Reaction to Conflict Prevention: Opportunities
for the UN System Lynne Rienner, 2002, (pp. 251-271) [20]
Gary J. Bass Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention New York: Knopf, 2008
November 24th
Session XII: POLICY OPTIONS
Preventive Diplomacy, Elite Cooptation, Identity Manipulation, Powersharing, Partition, Military
Intervention
Simulation continues (Feedback and Turn 3)
REQUIRED: [268]
Daniel Byman, Keeping the Peace, ch. 3-4 (pp. 44-99) and 6-8 (pp. 125-212) [142] (review ch. 5 as well)
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions Conclusion pp. 234-253. [19]
Richard Betts, “The Delusion of Impartial Intervention” Foreign Affairs Vol. 73 Nov/Dec 1994 pp. 20-33
[13].
Edward Mansfield and Jack Snyder Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War, Ch.1 and 9.
(pp. 1-19 and 265-283) [37] (Introduction and sequencing the democratic peace)
The Report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force Ch. 3-5 (pp. 35-92) [57]
SUPPLEMENTAL :
Chaim Kaufmann “Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars” International Security Vol. 20,
No. 4 (Spring, 1996), pp. 136-175.
Rudha Kumar, quot;The Troubled History of Partitionquot; Foreign Affairs January/February 1997.
Nicholas Sambanis, quot;Partition as a Solution to Ethnic Warquot; World Politics, July 2000
Donald Horowitz Ethnic Groups in Conflict Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. ch. 14-16
Kenneth J. Campbell Genocide and the Global Village. New York: Palgrave, 2001, pp.1-53.
“On the Brink: Weak States and the US National Security” a Report of the Commission on Weak States and
US National Security, Stuart E. Eizenstadt, Co-Chair, John Edward Porter, Co-Chair, Jeremy M. Weinstein,
Project Director.
December 1st
Session XIII: THE FUTURE OF PREVENTION
Research Papers Due and Evaluation
Possibilities for Prevention.
UN membership as a privilege?
A look at current events in Sri Lanka, Côte d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Sudan, and Iraq.
Studies and the future of scholarship
Simulation wrap-up (Feedback and outcome)
REQUIRED [118]
Thomas Weiss Humanitarian Intervention London: Polity Press, 2007, ch. 2 (pp. 31-58) and 5 (pp. 119-154)
[62]
8

9. Jacques Semelin, Purify and Destroy skim pp. 327-383 [56]
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil, Epilogue (pp. 571-606) [35]
SUPPLEMENTAL:
David Carment and Albrecht Schnabel. Conflict Prevention United Nations University Press, 2003, pp.11-46.
December 8th
Session XIV: SIMULATION DEBRIEF (optional)
20th Century Case Studies – (Threshold according to Benjamin Valentino)
Afghanistan
Angola
Burundi
Rene Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnocide as Discourse
Cambodia
Ben Kiernan The Pol Pot Regime. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000, pp.1-64.
Ethiopia
Gebru Tareke, “From Lash to Red Star: The Pitfalls of Counter-insurgency in Ethiopia, 1980-82”, Journal of
Modern African Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3 (September 2002) pp. 465-498
Guatemala
Victoria Sanford, Buried Secrets, Columbia University Press: New York, 1995
Beatrice Manz, Paradise in Ashes, University of California Press: Berkeley, 2004
Francisco Goldman, The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop? Grove Press, 2007
Itsembabwoko (Rwanda)
Gerard Prunier, The Rwandan Crisis New York: Columbia University Press, 1995
Peter Gourevitch, We Wish To Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our
Families New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1998
Christopher Taylor, Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994
Alison Des Forges et al, Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch, New York, 1999
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/
Scott Straus, The Order of Genocide, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2006
Metz Yeghern (Armenia)
Vakhan N. Dadrian “The Determinants of the Armenian Genocide,” working paper, Yale University,
Genocide Studies seminar, February 26, 1998.
Peter Balakian The Burning Tigris, Harper, New York, 2003, pp.159-215.
Vakhan N. Dadrian Warrant for Genocide, Translation, New Brunswick, 1999, pp.5-46.
Shoa (Holocaust)
Helen Fein Accounting for Genocide. New York: Free Press, 1979, pp.3-92.
Nora Levine The Holocaust. New York: Schocken, 1973. Pp.164-193 and 290-316.
Soviet Union
Robert Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow
Sudan
Gerard Prunier, Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007
On the Prevention of Genocide:
• Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict, Preventing Deadly Conflict. Final Report with
Executive Summary, Carnegie Corporation of New York, 1997.
• Chester Crocker, Fen Hampson, and Pamela Aall (eds.) Turbulent Peace, USIP, Washington, D.C., 2001
• Louis Kriesberg, Constructive Conflicts, Rowman, Lanham, 1998
• Michael Lund, Preventing Violent Conflicts, USIP, Washington, D.C., 1996.
• John Paul Lederach, Building Peace. Sustainable Reconciliation in Divided Societies, USIP, Washington,
D.C., 1997.
9

10. David Hamburg, No More Killing Fields, Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002
•
David Malone and Fen Hampson (eds), From Reaction to Conflict Prevention: Opportunities for the UN
•
System, Lynne Rienner, 2002
Barnett Rubin, Blood on the Doorstep: The Politics of Preventive Action, Century Foundation/Council of
•
Foreign Relations, New York, 2003
Peter Wallensteen, Understanding Conflict Resolution. War, Peace and the Global System, Sage, London,
•
2002
A Note on the Simulation
DESIGN RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
We propose an early warning simulation that will offer students of the genocide prevention course an
opportunity to explore the intricacies of policy formulation and implementation, as information is made available
to them. A resulting course take-away will be a unique learning experience in the context of moving from
genocide early warning to genocide early action and prevention. The simulation project is an integral part of the
course transformation from a theoretical exploration of genocide, to an applied course that will inform and direct
future policy-makers, security personnel, media members, and conflict resolution practitioners. The simulation
also will enhance the instructor's capacity to gain further insight into the student's understanding, and depth of
knowledge, when applying class lessons to realistic scenarios. This insight could support the instructor when
preparing and evaluating sessions focused on conceptualizing genocide prevention systems.
The simulation will not have a quot;winningquot; or quot;losingquot; scenario. It will illustrate the complexity of managing and
acting upon large volumes of information – complete with the requisite disinformation - related to genocidal
violence from the perspectives of the diplomatic, intelligence, military, and civil society communities. It will
improve learning by:
Enabling students to see that there is no single model that leads to, or prevents genocide.
•
Helping the students purposefully process large amounts of information.
•
Increasing the student’s ability to make conclusions on what are situations more, or less
•
likely to lead to genocide.
Improving the understanding of the ambiguity involved in early warning detection.
•
Re-purposing and mobilizing various lessons on historical genocides.
•
Supporting the professor in preparing and evaluating course sessions around genocide
•
prevention systems.
PROPOSED CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
• Knowledge of Genocide (Sessions 2-4)
• Early Warnings (Sessions 5-9)
• Towards a Genocide Prevention System (Session 10-13): Simulation
The simulation will place students in the middle of a scenario where genocide, or near genocide is occurring.
Students will participate in the simulation over four weeks, with a certain number of quot;turnsquot; occurring per week.
• Conclusion (Session 14): Simulation debrief
Evaluating the variables of the completed simulation, the students will argue why they left the simulation in a
state where genocide is more or less likely to occur. It is important to point out that this is not the time where
quot;correctquot; answers are revealed in the environment or the instructor. Certainly, there will be quot;more informedquot;
arguments to be made based on the state of the variables but the ultimate take-away will be understanding that
there is not a blue-print solution for genocide prevention.
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