290outline

POLS 290                                                                               Prof. Paul Conway
Fall, 2008                                                                                Office: Fitzelle 410
FITZ 215, T,Th 2-3:15                                                            Phone 436-3923

                                        GENOCIDE  and International Politics
Does power politics trump international law and diplomacy ?


" ... Justice depends on the equality of power to compel."                          - Thucydides

"All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

Catalog description: POLS 290   Genocide: International Law & Diplomacy                         1 s.h.
Examines the tragic failure of the international political system to respond to numerous occurrences of genocide in the twentieth century. In addition to the Holocaust, case studies include the genocide of Armenians, Cambodians, Rwandans. The course examines research on the meanings of genocide and its causes as well as efforts to develop international laws, tribunals, and mechanisms to discourage the crime.    (LA)
Prerequisite: SoS or 3 s.h. POLS.

Attendance is required. There are only ten regular class meetings scheduled for this minicourse.
If you have to miss a class, please let me know beforehand. As with other courses, students should document excused absences and arrange to make up work for classes that were missed.

Office hours: T, Th 11:25-12; 3:25-4:40; Wednesdays 11-12
I will be available in my office at many times in addition to the hours listed above; if you call in advance we can arrange to meet when it is convenient to both of us.

Grades: They will be determined on the basis of one quiz score, one optional short paper (maximum 3 pages), and one test. The quiz will not be counted if it is lower than the test grade at the conclusion of the course. Grades will be calculated on the basis of the best possible combination of scores derived from the following: Quiz = maximum of 33% Optional paper = maximum of 33% One test = minimum of 33% to maximum of 100%.

Required reading: Samantha Power, A Problem From Hell: The US and Genocide (Harper Perrenial 2007) There will also be additional reprints distributed in class.

Date                                       Topic                                          Reading in Power
Jan
17 Genocide in historical perspective: Ancient history and early 20th century cases
        Why history?
        History claims everybody, whether they know it or not
                and whether they like it or not.                                                 -- Phillip Roth
        To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. -- Cicero
        History without political science has no fruit; political science without history has no root
                                                                                                             -- Robert Seeley
Excerpts from ancient, sacred biblical texts
The twentieth century as a century of mass murder?
(The Belgians in the Congo; Hereros in German SouthWestAfrica)
What does genocide mean? and why do such definitions matter?   (handout)

Erving Staub's explanation that "genocide" develops over time,
and is most clearly conceptualized on a continuum

24    The Holocaust                               SP 17-45
                     What happened? How and why did it happen?
                     Why did the USA fail to intervene to save the Jews of Europe?
                     (videotape and comments)
        The post-war international response - The Nuremberg Trials and the
                    (anti) Genocide Pact (UNGC)

29 (Q) Cambodia: Power politics and tragedy during the 1970's and 1980's SP 87-154

Feb
5 *** Background to civil conflict in the former Yugoslavia
                    Ethnic cleansing and the international responses in Bosnia: The UN, NATO and power
                    politics                                                                  SP 247-328

14     Questions and comments:                                                      Scan SP 391-516
                  Samantha Power (NPR interview)
                http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3868198

                     Chinese oppression in Tibet as "cultural" genocide?
                     Argentina in the 1980’s, East Timor in the late 90's, Sudan in 2005?

                  The responses to horrendous human disasters: Justice (or), Truth and Reconciliation?
                    The potential for international tribunals and alternative approaches?
                    Overview: Comparing cases of genocide and the international responses

            Genocide in Sudan: Can it be stopped? How? -- or why not?
            http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darfur/
Some conclusions and questions: Mass murder on a continuum?

26 Exam and course evaluation
Note *** Last day to submit optional essay assignment.

Highly recommended supplementary readings:
Mark Amstutz The Healing of Nations: The Promise and Limits of Political Forgiveness Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005
Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn, The History and Sociology of Genocide (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990).
Daniel Cirot and Clark McCauley, Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Killing (Princeton, NJ 2006)
Mark Danner, "America and the Bosnian Genocide," New York Review of Books, December 4, 1997.
Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933-1945 (New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston/Bantam 1975).
Istvan Deak, "Misjudgement at Nuremberg," New York Review of Books October 7, 1993.
Alain Destexhe, Rwanda and Genocide in the Twentieth Century (New York University Press, 1996).
Phillip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998)
Berkeley, Bill The Graves are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe, and Power in the Heart of Africa. (Basic Books, 2001)
Jean Hatzfeld, Into the Quick of Life – The Rwandan Genocide: The Survivors Speak (Dans Le Nu de La Vie, 2000) English edition London: Serpent’s Tail, 2005.
_________ Machete Season: The Killers in Rwanda Speak
Adam Hothschild, King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
"War Against Women" in the Congo today (2008) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/60minutes/main3701249.shtml
Adam Jones, Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction (Routledge, UK 2006)
Ben Kiernan, The Pol Pot Regime: Race, Power, and Genocide in Cambodia
Under the Khmer Rouge, 1975-79(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).
Samuel P. and Pearl M. Oliner The Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe,
(New York: Macmillan/Free Press, 1988).
Samantha Power,"Genocide and America," New York Review of Books March 14, 2002, p15
_________ "To Suffer By Comparison?" Daedalus Spring, 1999 128/2, p.31.
David Rieff, "An Age of Genocide" The New Republic January 29, 1996, pp. 27-35. Peter Ronayne, Never Again: The United States and the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide Since the Holocaust (Boston: Roman & Littlefield, 2001)
_________ Slaughterhouse: Bosnia and the Failure of the West (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
Ervin Staub, The Roots of Evil (Cambridge, 1989/1994)
Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons, Israel Charny, eds. Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (Routledge, UK 2004)
Brian Urquhart, "In the Name of Humanity," New York Review of Books April 27, 2000, pp19-22.
Benjamin Valentino, Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century
(Ithaca: Cornell, 2004)
Alec Wilkinson, "A Changed Vision of God," The New Yorker, January 24, 1994, pp. 52-68.
David S. Wyman, The Abandonment of the Jews New York: Pantheon, 1984.
Warren Zimmerman, et. al., War in the Balkans, (New York: Foreign Affairs Reader, Council on Foreign Relations, 1999).
Caroline Moorehead "Letter From Darfur" The New York Review of Books August 11, 2005. p55-57.
Samantha Power, "Dying in Darfur." The New Yorker August 30, 2004, p56
Michael N. Barnett, "The UN Security Council, Indifference, and Genocide in Rwanda" Cultural Anthropology 12:4 p551(on the political socialization of diplomats)

***********************************************************************************************************************

Here’s the information on Arto’s concert. You might also want to look at the following article I wrote about Arto’s concert dedicated to the memory of the slain Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor Hrant Dink:
http://archive.hetq.am/eng/culture/0704-arto.html

Gayane Torosyan

Communication Arts

INTERNATIONAL FOLK MUSICIAN TO PERFORM AT SUNY-ONEONTA

ONEONTA, N.Y. -- Turkish-Armenian avant-garde folk percussionist and singer Arto Tuncboyaciyan will perform in the Hunt Union Ballroom of the SUNY College at Oneonta at 9 p.m. on Monday, February 4. Admission to the event is complimentary, and members of the community are invited to attend.

Tuncboyaciyan is known for his diverse collaborations with musicians such as Paul Winters, Al Di Meola, Matthew Garrison, Joe Zawinul, Norah Jones, and the California-based Armenian heavy-metal band called System of a Down. He is also the founder and leader of The Armenian Navy Band, a 12-member jazz orchestra that won the 2006 BBC 3 World Music competition in the Audience Awards category and topped the European world music charts with their CD "Sounds of Our Life, Part One: Natural Seeds."

**********************************************************************************

POLITICAL SCIENCE Guidelines Spring, 2008
290 Optional Assignment Prof P. Conway

ASSIGNMENT: Summary and Critique of two social science journal articles on the subject of genocide or mass murder.

TASK: Select, summarize, and critically review two articles in scholarly periodicals that examine the causes of one genocidal event and/or the international responses to that event.

A. After deciding which topic you want to investigate, sign up for it with the instructor.

B. Select articles that are interesting and readable to you. Use the list of journals below.

C. Before reading either article, ask yourself what you know about the subject, why are you interested in it and what questions you have on the topic. Then read carefully. Give attention to the author's objectives, his basic assumptions and the way he defines key terms, and his analytic approach to the subject. Your main concern is with the overall quality of the article in terms of how it affects your own feelings and especially thoughts about the topic. Questions such as the following may be asked: How do the events compare to genocidal events in other places you have read about? Why did genocide happen in those places? (Consider how genocide is defined for diplomatic and other political purposes) How did big powers and international organizations respond to the genocide? After you have read through once, think about it in relation to the questions above and reread it again, if necessary. Proceed to summarize and critique both articles. Your essay should then compare the articles and express your thoughts and questions on the topic you investigated.

D. Be sure to express your thinking about the article's main points. Try to relate to relevant points in Power’s text or your notes. Express (in your essay) some of the questions that are raised in your mind as a result of reading the articles (Express yourself as clearly as possible. Don't mention the writing style of the authors - if they were difficult to understand, remember you picked the articles and they were supposed to be readable in the first place.) All of the wording in your essay should be your own, except for lines or phrases by the author that you clearly put in “quotes.” Condense your double critique commentary to three typewritten pages, half summaries and half critique. Be sure to proofread it before you turn it in.

E. *** Acceptable political science journals and scholarly periodicals include the following:

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
Comparative Politics
Current History (two articles here is equivalent to one in the other sources)
Journal of Conflict Resolution
Journal of Politics
Daedalus
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Policy
International Security
Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution
Political Science Quarterly
Polity
World Politics
New York Review of Books or London Review of Books

F. Write the web site address and clearly cite the articles that you intend to critique on the list available in class and in my o ffice. Do not select articles that someone else has already claimed. Be sure to select your articles from one or two of the journals marked above. If you run into any problems let me know as soon as possible. In the front of the paper you submit you must include the full citation for the articles that you critiqued with the name of the authors, the title of the articles (in quotes), the title of the publications (underlined or in bold print), the numbers of the volume and issue (with dates in parentheses), and, lastly, the page numbers. You must also clearly cite the web addresses where (and when) you found the articles. Note: The due date is Feb 5.

*************************************************************************************************************************

Study questions for the test on February (!) 26: (I will select 2 of these four; the two will constitute 60% of the test grade)

1. Consider where, when, and how the term “ethnic cleansing” has been used.
Is it really any different from the term genocide? (Explain)

2. In which of the genocides that we considered was WAR a factor and what wars were relevant to those genocides? ( Explain vis-à-vis Turkey, The Holocaust, Cambodia, Iraq, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan?)

3. What are some of the main reasons why the US has consistently failed to intervene to stop genocide during the 20^th century even though there was overwhelming evidence that massive crimes were occurring ? (explain similarities and differences in the examples)

4. Explain the failures of the United Nations to effectively intervene to stop the genocides in Rwanda and now Sudan. How are the cases similar and how different?

Why is a robust UN Security Council action in response to massive crimes in Sudan so difficult to achieve?
Economic considerations (e.g., France and China have oil deals with Sudan; Russia is selling weapons to Sudan)

Diplomatic considerations (e.g., Some countries on the Security Council are reluctant to be seen as too quick to go along with US proposals, suspicions about US power and motivations; many countries, perhaps African states especially, are reluctant to create precedent of intervention in a sovereign state's internal affairs.

Domestic US considerations (e.g., The US is somewhat overextended militarily (in terms of available personnel?) and reluctant to send even small numbers of troops to another country at this time; US is willing to pass resolution creating economic sanctions against Sudan's government.)