Genocide and the Europeans

A unique view of European governments' reaction to genocide in the post-Cold War world.

Karen E. Smith (Author)

9780521116350, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 October 2010

288 pages, 4 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.8 cm, 0.58 kg

'Europe prides itself on being a normative power, but this remarkable book asks Europe to be humble. Smith reveals that European governments and the EU as such did little in response to repeated acts of genocide in Rwanda, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Darfur. They even failed to call 'genocide' by its name and frequently attempted to avoid obligations arising from the Genocide Convention and from the social norm against genocide. Few books on European foreign policy have been so revealing and well argued. Genocide and the Europeans is an extraordinary achievement and is strongly recommended to all students interested in European politics and international relations.' Jan Zielonka, University of Oxford

Genocide is one of the most heinous abuses of human rights imaginable, yet reaction to it by European governments in the post-Cold War world has been criticised for not matching the severity of the crime. European governments rarely agree on whether to call a situation genocide, and their responses to purported genocides have often been limited to delivering humanitarian aid to victims and supporting prosecution of perpetrators in international criminal tribunals. More coercive measures - including sanctions or military intervention - are usually rejected as infeasible or unnecessary. This book explores the European approach to genocide, reviewing government attitudes towards the negotiation and ratification of the 1948 Genocide Convention and analysing responses to purported genocides since the end of the Second World War. Karen E. Smith considers why some European governments were hostile to the Genocide Convention and why European governments have been reluctant to use the term genocide to describe atrocities ever since.

1. The norms against genocide
2. European governments and the development of the international legal framework on genocide
3. European discourses on genocide during the Cold War
4. Bosnia and Herzegovina
5. Rwanda
6. Kosovo
7. Darfur
8. Is there a European way of responding to genocide?

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], War crimes [JWXK], Human rights [JPVH], International relations [JPS], Genocide & ethnic cleansing [HBTZ]