Pinpointing Patterns of Violence: A Comparative Genocide Studies Approach to Violence Escalation in the Ukrainian Holodomor

This article utilizes the case study of the 1930s Ukrainian Holodomor, an artificially induced famine under Joseph Stalin, to advance comparative genocide studies debates regarding the nature, onset, and prevention of large-scale violence. Fieldwide debates question how to 1) distinguish genocide from other forms of large-scale violence and 2) trace genocides as unfolding processes, rather than crescendoing events. To circumvent unproductive definitional arguments, methodologies that track large-scale violence according to numerically-based thresholds have substituted for dynamics-based analyses. Able to address aspects of the genocide puzzle, these methodologies struggle to incorporate cross-cultural contextual variation or elicit ripe moments for specific, real-time interventions. Demonstrating how genocide’s precise, changing dynamics can be mapped over its duration, I present and apply a new mixed methods methodology, affirming that historical cases can inform modern prevention efforts. By coding 1932–1933 Ukraine-specific correspondences to/from Stalin, I pinpoint the precise moment when genocidal intent and victim selection overlaps.

Dehumanising Ideology, Metaphors, and Psychological Othering as Evidence of Genocidal Intent

Evidence of genocidal intent is rarely overtly available. Prosecutors arguably avoid prosecuting the crime of genocide because of its too-high evidentiary threshold. This paper argues that psychology, linguistics, and biology provide some of the tools that courts should revert to in the proof of the dolus specialis. Every genocide is characterised by dehumanisation. There is an intrinsic connection between the génocidaire’s understanding of the victims as dehumanised ‘others’ and the intent to destroy a group. Social psychology has shown that the perpetrator sets apart the victim group as inferior, subhuman, and a threat to the in-group. Dehumanising discourse exposes the perpetrators’ understanding and ideologies and makes the victim group discernible. Linguistic research reveals the significance of metaphors for dehumanisation and intergroup hostility. Lastly, research on bio-signals such as heart rate, breathing, skin conductance response or eeg can assist in measuring the impact of dehumanisation and provide the courts with yet another tool to prove genocidal intent. Through recourse to a palette of conceptual and theoretical approaches, this paper provides an account of the ways in which a dark constellation of metaphor, dehumanising ideology, and psychological othering coalesce to form genocidal intent.

Dossier: Uyghur Women in China’s Genocide

In genocide, both women and men suffer. However, their suffering has always been different; with men mostly subjected to torture and killings, and women mostly subjected to torture and mutilation. These differences stem primarily from the perpetrators' ideology and intention to exterminate the targeted people. Many patriarchal societies link men with blood lineage and the group’s continuation, while women embody the group’s reproductivity and dignity. In the ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan, the ideology of Chinese colonialism is a root cause. It motivates the targeting of women as the means through which to destroy the reproductivity and the dignity of the people as a whole. It is a common misunderstanding to associate genocide with only mass killings, and the current lack of evidence for massacres has led some to prematurely conclude there is no genocide. But this overlooks the targeting of women, which is also a prominent part of the definition of genocide laid out in the Genocide Convention. State policy in China intentionally targets Uyghur and other Turkic women in multiple ways. This dossier is focused on analyzing China’s targeted policies against Uyghur women and their “punishment,” as rooted in part in ancient Chinese legalist philosophy. In doing so, this dossier contributes toward further exposing Chinese colonialism and the genocidal intent now in evidence.

Judicial Inference of the ‘Intent to Destroy’

This article tackles the issue of genocidal intent by placing emphasis on the nature of genocide as a hierarchical and collective crime. While traditionally it is the collective dimension of victimization that is highlighted, in this article the author highlights the collective dimension of perpetration, which is often downplayed in genocide cases. This is done by examining two specific cases pertaining to the genocide in Bosnia (Trbić and Nikolić) and the evidentiary patterns followed by the judges in these cases. Moreover, the author relies on his interviews with perpetrators (in Rwanda, Burundi, Bosnia, and Cambodia). Broadly speaking, the approach taken is that often the intent of individual perpetrators is conflated with more general collective policies and there are elements of this interplay that should be taken into account. It would seem more appropriate for the author to emphasize these collective aspects rather than inferring genocidal intent of individual perpetrators from a set of contextual elements which may not really be sufficient in determining the special intent required.

Myanmar will face more Western sanctions

Subject Western response to Rohingya crisis. Significance On August 27, the UN Human Rights Council released a report on the Rohingya crisis and other ethnic conflicts in Myanmar. The report finds that Myanmar’s military had "genocidal intent" towards Rohingya Muslims, of whom some 700,000 have fled violence in Rakhine State since August 2017. The US State Department is due to release its own report on the Rohingya situation, based on interviews conducted in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Labelling the Myanmar military’s actions as genocidal would entail legal obligations in line with the 1948 UN Genocide Convention. Impacts Japan, worried about increased Chinese influence in the region, will not support Western sanctions on the Myanmar military. Further Western sanctions on Myanmar would prompt Beijing to expand its aid to Naypyidaw accordingly. Myanmar will refuse any cooperation with the International Criminal Court.