Genocide Studies: Pathways Ahead

Edited by Jeffrey S. Bachman.

In recent years, the world has been shaken by numerous events that have caused and continue to cause massive human suffering, from the COVID-19 pandemic to intrastate and interstate armed conflicts. Moreover, climate change continues to plow ahead, contributing to growing tensions, population movements, and resource scarcity. Meanwhile, the methods by which groups and group life are threatened, and the means by which violence is incited and perpetrated, continue to evolve. Such divergent crises, even when they overlap or intersect, confound definition and label. This book seeks not to answer the question “What is genocide?” but rather “What is genocide studies?” When Raphael Lemkin coined the term “genocide” in 1944, he could not have foreseen what the world would look like today. Now is the time to think about current manifestations of genocide and those likely to emerge in the future.

With contributions by Jeffrey S. Bachman, Sara E. Brown, Esther Brito, Adam Jones, Elisabeth Hope Murray, Timothy Williams, Benjamin Meiches, Andrew Woolford, Wanda June, Eva van Roekel, Hollie Nyseth Nzitatira, Jamie D. Wise, and Lauren M. Balasco

Jeffrey S. Bachman is associate professor at American University’s School of International Service. He is the author of The Politics of Genocide: From the Genocide Convention to the Responsibility to Protect (Rutgers University Press, 2022) and The United States and Genocide: (Re)Defining the Relationship and the editor of Cultural Genocide: Law, Politics, and Global Manifestations.