Genocide and Crimes against Humanity - Essay Example

? Critical bibliography Eric D. Weitz, A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Race and Nation (Princeton: Princeton Press 2005) also covers some of the cases, emphasizing the role of nationalism in genocide. – Modern Functionalist. A century of Genocide, a successful book written by Eric Weitz does not only focus on the past of genocidal regimes but it also expands the boundaries of genocide through introducing few case studies. Throughout his book we see the different types of approaches that he uses to make his writing unique. The author attempts to explain his choices of these case studies through providing historical accounts for the growth of genocides in the 21st century, stating that genocide stands at the center of our modern cultural crisis. Considering all the case studies that he uses throughout his book Eric Weitz, highlights that although each of the cases has its own ‘particularities’ yet, all ‘display some notably common features’. Eric Weitz discussion concentrates on four different genocide cases, which includes the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, Nazi Germany, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge and the final case, which is the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The author of this established literature applies comparative methodology to the study of genocide. In looking at the Nazis case, Weitz leaves the reader with having to accept the notion that the author concludes the chapter with avoiding the ideology of whether he places his account on an intentionalist or a functionalist perspective. Weitz cleverly manages to do this through providing a compelling narrative that balances the role of the ideology and the circumstances in that particular case. However, from reading the fourth chapter, which details the genocide in Cambodia, the author stands at a more modern functionalist account. This is evident by the way Eric blames the French interventionism, providing few of the Khmer Rouge leaders including Pol Pot ... and states how these in particular were fortunate to be able to get the western education of which gave them the position in the communism, stating that they were born in the society that already functions like that. The author tends to rely on the race and nation to emphasize on the discussion of genocide. A Century of Genocide uses UN convention to define the term Genocide. This chapter is excellent in terms of where it covers real situation of which in turn gives the reader the ability to understand different perspectives from real situations as a appose to only write what happened without using real life characters or situations. The author successfully manages to apprehend the reader on continuing to read through using quotations from other historians, political actors, eyewitnesses and the use of poems. Unfortunately the author fails on many accounts on making his overall book of a first authors’ establishment, he misses the opportunity on expanding the alternative methodologies of research and rather heavily concentrates on the secondary research. Thus, making ‘A Century of Genocide’ provide very little new evidence or self-interpretation of the genocide events. Having to lack in his primary research the author misses out other crucial genocide regimes including the Rwanda case. Weitz acknowledges in his introduction that throughout his 5 chapters he presents very limited primary research. Critical bibliography 2: Benjamin A. Valentino, Final Solutions: Mass Killings and Genocide in the 20th Century. – Modern intentionalist Benjamin A., Valentino an associate Professor of Government and an author of Final Solutions: Mass killings and Genocide in the 20th Century, discusses in his well-established book, the different genocide regimes that occurred during the 20th century, focusing on three types of mass killings, including the communist mass killings, ethnic genocide and the “counter-guerrilla” mass killing. Valentino, focuses on particular case studies representing each type of genocide, highlighting the mass killing in Cambodia, China and the Soviet Union by the Communist leaders of whom it involved Pol Pot, Stalin and Mao in chapter 4, the Ethic mass killing, in Turkish Armenia, Nazi Germany and Rwanda in chapter 5 and the final type of which he describes as “Counterguerrilla” mass killing in Guatemala and Afghanistan in chapter6. Similarly to A Century of Genocide by Weitz, Final Solution also, drafts the definitions by Raphael Lemkin whom originated the definition of Genocide in 1944 and by the United Nation, but believes that it’s vague within it definition. Thus, Valentino adopts the definition of genocide and defines it “as the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants” (2004: 10), the author utilises the term “mass killing” instead of genocide. In contrary, to the above book by Eric Weitz, Valentino, stands at an intentionalist account, this is observed through understanding his definition of mass killing, and arguing that it essentially starts from “specific goals” and “strategies of high political and military leaders” (2004: 2), making this study an astute and provocative, as very few scholars would support this theory. According to Valentino, Pol Pot including other communist leader, the transformation of society by complying with the Marxists principle was the central goal to revolution (2004: 144). Convincingly, Valentino diminishes the perception of blaming the society for the violence of mass killings. Although, he argues that these tyrants use a powerful method to recruit the right people within society, for the mass killing. Valentino cleverly, nominates these particular genocide regimes in his book as they essentially provide a wide disparity in terms of culture, time period, geography and most importantly the regime nature. In chapter 4, where he discusses the mass killing in Cambodia, Valentino highlights one of the Khmer Rouges objective and that they essentially wanted a new Cambodian society starting from “year zero” (2004: 133), believing that it is only possible through violence and the use of famines which resulted in the lives of at least seven hundred thousand civilians (2004: 93). In comparison to the above book, Final Solution and A Century of Genocide, both in common focus on similar genocide cases that occurred during the same century, interestingly with opposing perspectives. In the final chapter, Valentino, concludes his book by emphasizing on the importance of some implication of the strategic viewpoints for ruling out or limiting mass killing in the future and that eventually through removing the authority from leaders and small groups that are potential threat to cause and organize the mass killing. In support to his intentionalist approach, Valentino establishes in chapter 4 the mentioned communist countries and compares them with what he concludes in the last part of the chapter, other communist countries that have avoided becoming genocidal. This proves that not all communist leaders share a particular goal. Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), Modern functionalist approach. The history of XX century is considered to be the history of conflicts, a lot of which had interethnic character. Ethnic conflicts have significantly changed the character of the war. The main trouble is that plain citizens were killed and tortured together with soldiers. In some cases the state acted against their own citizens and these were the most awful events of the XX century. American sociologist Michael Mann is the author of the theory according to which mass ethnic conflicts has become the recompense of the modern world for the process of democratization. In his book “The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing” (2005) Mann suggests the thesis stating that ethnic cleansing and genocide represent the part of the evolution of modern democratic national states. The developing countries went through the process of national states formation more calmly. In those states where the political institutes were forming together with the nation there were many conflicts. And though the theory of Mann can’t explain some cruelest expressions of ethnic cleansing and genocide, it seems credible for many states of Europe, Asia and Africa, which have dark sides in their history. The first and main reason lays in the fact that in the XX century “the democracy of the masses” was spread when the government was formed of the different layers of society. In XIX century the government consisted of elite or of men from middle class, who had the rights to vote. XX century provided all the adults with such rights. According to Mann, this created the problem, because if the political system is based on the power of nation the question that arises is what a nation is. With the development of nationalism in the XX century the situation occurs when in the one country there is more than one nation in terms of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. And all these nations pretend to one territory. In this context the process of democratization becomes more complicated. Certainly, the situations in which two peoples pretend to one and the same territory are not widespread. The cases in which the majority influences the minority within the borders of one state are more widespread. And the minority does not show much resistance. In the cases if the minority shows resistance and pretends to own political autonomy and even to the power, problems occur inevitably. In addition to the development of democracy there were other reasons. The cruelty of wars, which led to great losses, was increasing. Moreover, in XX century many utopian ideologies were spread on the national level. Thus, ethnic crimes of Stalin in the USSR can’t be explained by the process of democratization. Here we should talk about the cruelty of the modern war, utopian goals of socialism and fascism, which led to the appearance of intolerable political regimes. If to look at the history of XX century, we can see the problem of the development of political institutes. In some cases there was the choice between the social class and ethnicity. It was a new choice, which never occurred before. Read More