Genocide Denial and Prevention

In the ancient world, the destruction of a people was acknowledged, even celebrated; in the modern world, it has been uniformly denied. This essay is an attempt to indicate the meaning of denial, its relationship to other processes that are similar yet different (non-recognition, erosion of memory, indifference), the logic behind it (denial of the facts, responsibility, applicability of the term genocide to events, the significance of the destruction), the tactics used to further it, and its consequences—especially the various ways in which it undermines efforts to prevent genocide.