Genocide Studies

The course aims at familiarizing students with the development of the legal concept of genocide in international law and identifying cases of genocide. Students will compare and contrast eight cases of genocide in the 20th – beginning of 21st century: the Armenian genocide, the Holodomor in Ukraine, the Holocaust, the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan; and the ongoing Russian genocide against the Ukrainian nation. The course identifies problems in international law and world order that contribute to difficulties preventing, intervening, and reconciling cases of genocide.

While totalitarian and authoritarian governments have probably massacred over 150,000,000 Armenian, Chinese, Cambodian, Jew, Gypsy, Polish, Greek, Japanese, Ugandan, Indonesian, Serb, Ukrainian, Croatian, Kurd, Burundian, Tibetan, Iranian, and other people, in most cases those guilty were not punished. The course will trace reasons for that.