The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century
Cambridge University Press, 10/20/2005
EAN 9780521815451, ISBN10: 0521815452
Hardcover, 480 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.7 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
The Killing Trap offers a comparative analysis of the genocides, politicides and ethnic cleansings of the twentieth century, which are estimated to have cost upwards of forty million lives. The book seeks to understand both the occurrence and magnitude of genocide, based on the conviction that such comparative analysis may contribute towards prevention of genocide in the future. Manus Midlarsky compares socio-economic circumstances and international contexts and includes in his analysis the Jews of Europe, Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Tutsi in Rwanda, black Africans in Darfur, Cambodians, Bosnians, and the victims of conflict in Ireland. The occurrence of genocide is explained by means of a framework that gives equal emphasis to the non-occurrence of genocide, a critical element not found in other comparisons, and victims are given a prominence equal to that of perpetrators in understanding the magnitude of genocide.
Preface
Part I. Introduction
1. Preliminary considerations
2. Case selection
Part II. Explaining Perpetrators
Theoretical Foundations
3. Continuity and validation
4. Prologue to theory
5. A theoretical framework
Part III. The Theory Applied
6. Threat of numbers, realpolitik, and ethnic cleansing
7. Realpolitik and loss
8. The need for unity and altruistic punishment
9. Perpetrating states
Part IV. Victim Vulnerability
Explaining Magnitude and Manner of Dying
10. Raison d'état, raison d'église
11. Cynical realpolitik and the unwanted
12. High victimization
the role of realpolitik
13. Inequality and absence of identification
14. On the possibility of revolt and altruistic punishment
Part V. Exceptions
15. A dog of different nature
the Cambodian Politicide
16. Dogs that didn't bark I
realpolitik and the absence of loss
17. Dogs that didn't bark II
affinity and vulnerability reduction
Part VI. Conclusion
18. Findings, consequences, and prevention.