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Studying Mass Violence: Pitfalls, Problems, and Promises
- Genocide Studies and Prevention
- University of Toronto Press
- Volume 7, Number 1, Spring 2012
- pp. 68-80
- 10.1353/gsp.2012.0009
- Article
- Additional Information
This article examines some of the main pitfalls, problems, and promises of genocide research. It argues that genocide is a viable academic concept if protected from moral, legal, political, and emotional constraints. It should be approached in a dispassionate, amoral, non-juridical, and apolitical way. The article further discusses a model for understanding genocide that identifies three levels of analysis: the interstate pressures of the global state system and the influence of crises and war; the intrastate context of radical ideology, state power, and the dynamic of the genocidal process; and the micro-level conditions that enable the involvement of individual actors in violence.