The Genealogy of Genocide: The Education of the Intellectual Architects of Genocide: A Social Learning Analysis

It is my position that those wishing to prevent genocide are not the only ones studying it. A clear understanding of how genocides are initiated and carried out also helps regimes recognize when genocide is a viable option, and offers functional insight into how to initiate it. In this investigation I examine how and what genocidal leaders learn from other genocides. It is my contention that the information gathered by leaders from other genocides is utilized for the planning and preparation of genocide in their society. This investigation focuses on how the genocide of Armenians in 1915 informed the planning and preparation for the Holocaust, and how both the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust informed the leaders of the Rwandan genocide. This paper considers genocide by focusing on the outside factors that determine the environment in which genocide develops. I examine the interconnection of genocide within the context of politics, media and propaganda, third party actors, and law using a historical institutionalist lens. This investigation will utilize the theoretical framework of social learning theory to examine data. Genocide, even when perfectly contained is a threat to international peace and security because one genocide sets the stage for the next. The international community has often responded to genocide ineffectively. My goal is to identify some of the actions and omissions of the international community that may encourage a favourable environment for genocide. I intend to achieve this using a case study approach with a qualitative methodology. A clearer understanding of the role of the social learning process of the genocide leaders in past genocides will provide a framework for recommending future actions, and offer a better understanding of how the world can respond prior to, and in the aftermath of, genocide in order to prevent future genocides