CHIST 1150 Genocide and the Ethics of Humanitarian Intervention
This course examines the history and ethical arguments behind international (non)intervention to prevent and punish genocide from the twentieth century to the present. From the Armenian Genocide in 1915 to systematic atrocities against civilians in Darfur and the Rohingya ethnic minority in Myanmar, murder on a mass scale is one of the most troubling crimes against humanity, and one of the only crimes that the international community is legally obligated to prevent and punish. Yet, since the signing of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in 1948, the number of times the international community did not intervene to prevent genocide are as numerous as these events themselves. Using historical documents, memoirs, and films, that present the perspectives of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders, we will interrogate the political, social, and cultural reasons behind why people kill, why no one stops them, and what more could have been done.