Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (Dec 2019)

Critical Genocide Studies and Mass Atrocity Prevention

  • Ernesto Verdeja

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9933.13.3.1676
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 3
pp. 111 – 127

Abstract

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Critical genocide studies has emerged as an important strand of scholarship devoted to interrogating the core assumptions of the field of genocide studies. Drawing on these developments, this article outlines a critical approach to modern atrocity prevention that is self-reflective, dialectical, multivalent, and anti-teleological. Part I provides a brief overview of contemporary prevention. Part II elaborates the four elements of the proposed critical approach toward prevention. Part III applies this approach to examine several important issue areas in current prevention work: the importance of global and regional contextualization; securitization and state power; conceptualizations of political violence; the status of expert knowledge; and, the place of civil society in prevention. The article is partly based on interviews with atrocity prevention practitioners.

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