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Reconsidering Root Causes

A New Framework for the Structural Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities

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Genocide, Risk and Resilience

Part of the book series: Rethinking Political Violence Series ((RPV))

Abstract

‘Structural prevention … comprises strategies to address the root causes of deadly conflict,’ observed the Carnegie Commission in the seminal report, Preventing Deadly Conflict (Hamburg and Vance, 1997: 69). This statement succinctly defines the dominant paradigm within research into the causes and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. Extreme violence has been perceived as resulting from the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors or root causes. Prevention, therefore, requires the timely identification and deconstruction of these causal factors. This paradigm has been very successful in identifying a number of the long-term causes of genocide and mass atrocities, such as the presence of an ‘outgroup’ and the existence of internal strife within societies. Similarly, it has led to the identification of a range of preventive actions that may mitigate these risk factors, such as legislation to protect vulnerable minorities. Furthermore, models analysing the presence of risk factors in particular nations have enabled the development of mass atrocity risk lists for early warning purposes. Perhaps because of these successes, the assumptions that underlie the ‘root cause’ approach to the causes and prevention of genocide and mass atrocities have rarely been questioned. Yet analysis suggests that they are both flawed and unnecessarily restrictive.

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Authors
  1. Stephen McLoughlin
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  2. Deborah Mayersen
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB), University of Antwerp, Belgium

    Bert Ingelaere (Researcher) (Researcher)

  2. Centre for Research on Peace and Development (CRPD), KU Leuven, Belgium

    Bert Ingelaere (Researcher) (Researcher)

  3. Law and Human Rights, KU Leuven, Belgium

    Stephan Parmentier (Professor of Sociology of Crime) (Professor of Sociology of Crime)

  4. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium

    S J Jacques Haers (Academic Director) (Academic Director)

  5. University Centre Saint-Ignatius Antwerp, Belgium

    Barbara Segaert (Scientific Coordinator) (Scientific Coordinator)

Copyright information

© 2013 Stephen McLoughlin and Deborah Mayersen

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McLoughlin, S., Mayersen, D. (2013). Reconsidering Root Causes. In: Ingelaere, B., Parmentier, S., Jacques Haers, S.J., Segaert, B. (eds) Genocide, Risk and Resilience. Rethinking Political Violence Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137332431_4

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