Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention

This proposes a new framework for atrocity prevention, featuring scholars from around the globe including three former UN special advisers.

Mass atrocities are those crimes that result in the worst violence to the most people: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing. This book provides a much-needed update to current thinking, arguing the need for a historically informed, locally based and flexible approach to prevention.In the two-and-a-half decades since the end of the Cold War, policy makers have become acutely aware of the extent to which the world today faces mass atrocities. In an effort to prevent the death, destruction and global chaos wrought by these crimes, the agendas for both national and international policy have grown beyond conflict prevention to encompass atrocity prevention, protection of civilians, transitional justice and the responsibility to protect. Yet, to date, there has been no attempt to address the topic of the prevention of mass atrocities from the theoretical, policy and practicing standpoints simultaneously. This volume is designed to fill that gap, clarifying and solidifying the present understanding of atrocity prevention. It will serve as an authoritative work on the state of the field.