In part two, chapter two of Scott Straus’s book Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Straus presents areas of the consensus of risk factors of mass atrocity, addressing and explaining both common and disputed findings. He states how large-scale instability, armed conflict, differences in ideologies, and prior discrimination are common findings that scholars have a good consensus on. While long-seated hatred, low government capacity, economic crises, and authoritarianism are disputed risk factors. In this paper, I will show how while Straus addresses the common findings of risk factors well, he overlooks some factors that provide supporting evidence to some disputed risk factors he mentioned. I will use specific examples from the Kurdish genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide to support this claim.
The Kurdish genocide provided ample evidence that large-scale instability and armed conflict are very important risk factors of genocide. They are all addressed as common findings by Straus. Instability existed between the Kurds sixty years before the genocide. The Kurdish has always been trying to gain independence since the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 after World War I. This has created a rebellion among the Iraqs against Kurdish leading figures in their independence struggle. Neither Iraq’s independence in 1958 nor Saddam Hussein's rise to power in 1979 changed that. These instabilities made Kurds be viewed as a threat to Iraqi unity for over forty years, which is an important building block for the Kurdish genocide. Armed Conflict also contributed to the Kurdish genocide, in this case, the Iran-Iraq War. It is an eight-year-long war between Iran and Iraq that caused the death of over one million soldiers on both sides. Iraq also used chemical weapons during the war, which buried the seed of the genocide because the main way the genocide was performed was by gas attacks among different Kurdish villages. The Kurdish genocide supports Straus’s viewpoint on how large-scale instability and armed conflict are crucial risk factors for genocides.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Three of the four disputed findings of risk factors addressed by Straus were found in the Holocaust: deep-seated hatred, authoritarianism, and economic crises. The hate Europeans had for the Jews had its roots long before the Holocaust. It originated in Jerusalem as a religious discrimination. The religious hate after the late eighteen hundreds transformed into hatred based on the race of the Jews known as anti-Semitism. Jewish people have always been treated poorly and considered to be outsiders by Europeans since the Middle Ages. This is a very deep-seated hatred and is a big part of the cause of the Holocaust. The Authoritarianism and economic crisis during the time, were also very important risk factors of the Holocaust. After World War I, Germany’s economy collapsed due to the huge amounts of reparations Germany had to pay, causing many Germans to become broke, unemployed, and even homeless. This is one of the major reasons why Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi party and the center of the authoritarian government of Germany, was able to convince people to direct their frustration to the Jews: because the people were desperate and needed to blame it onto someone. It is then safe to state that authoritarianism and economic crises were both crucial risk factors that made the Holocaust happen. This is a piece of qualitative evidence that shows deep-seated hatred, authoritarianism, and economic crises are important risk factors for genocide.
Deep-seated hatred was also an important cause of the Rwandan genocide. It was addressed by Straus in the book as a disputed finding, due to the four objections among the scholar world. However, it has been shown that hatred is a main risk factor of the Rwandan genocide. The hatred Hutus had towards Tutsis, which is a significant cause of the Rwandan genocide, had its roots thirty years before the genocide happened when the postcolonial government had been practicing systematic anti-Tutsi policies in the 1960s. The anti-Tutsi pogroms led by the presidency of Grégoire Kayibanda were the first set of systematic violence and hatred policies created, which happened after Tutsi refugees led an aborted raid from neighboring Burundi. Without the hatred that was created by the conflict between the Hutu and the Tutsis, the Rwandan genocide could very much be avoided. This was not mentioned by Straus and it is strong evidence that deep-seated hatred is a significant risk factor of genocide, and that the Holocaust is not the only genocide with deep-seated hatred being its cause.
The Kurdish genocide gives ample examples of how large-scale instability and armed conflict will increase the likelihood of a genocide happening, which agrees with what Straus addressed. However, while Straus explains how the scholarly world disputes deep-seated hatreds, authoritarianism, and economic crises as risk factors, qualitative examples from the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocides support some of these risk factors. This shows while Straus did address some of the common risk factors well, he overlooked historical evidence that supports some of the disputed risk factors.
Stuck on your essay?
