THE ZORYAN INSTITUTE Newsletter - Azad-Hye

In their book, Not on our Watch: TheMission to End Genocide in Darfurand Beyond (New York: Hyperion,2007), Don Cheadle (Actorvist) andJohn Prendergast (frontline journalistand activist) repeatedly point outwhat they call the Four HorsemenEnabling the Apocalypse: apathy, indifference,ignorance and policy inertia.They are seeking to addressthese by tackling what they see to bethe three pillars fostering “a realchange in human rights and conflictresolution policy: field research, tolearn what is really happening in conflictzones and what needs to bedone, high level advocacy to deliverthe message to the people who determine policy, anddomestic political pressure for a constituency that caresabout these issues and takes them up with theirelected officials.” They stress that it is the last one thatoften goes missing, and to which the book is directed.New BooksThis section will bring you exciting new publications in the fields which the Institute is active: Genocide Studies, DiasporaStudies, and Armenia Studies. Whether they are Zoryan’s or not, the books will be highlighted because theInstitute believes they are of interest to the reader.The Anti-Genocide Movement in AmericaPage FourThis is a book about being part ofbuilding sustained and robust campaignsby organized citizens. It outlinesthe problem, informs how onecan get involved, and shares thestories of the authors’ paths. It alsomakes a strong appeal why everyindividual should act. They arguethat if enough people would makethe prevention of genocide an electionissue, the US governmentwould respond. It puts the emphasisfor action on each of us and showsthat it is both easier to do and moreeffective than most think. The appendixis a detailed list of ways onecan get involved immediately, includingsuggestions for enhancing the success of advocacyinitiatives. This book can help citizens begin tomake an important different in the prevention of genocideand gross violations of human rights by starting tohelp the people of Darfur today.The Patterns of Genocide Allows Prediction and thus PreventionBen Kiernan’s Blood and Soil: AWorld History of Genocide and Exterminationfrom Sparta to Darfur (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 2007)is an examination of outbreaks ofmass violence from the classical erato the present, focusing on worldwidecolonial exterminations andtwentieth-century case studies, includingthe Armenian Genocide, theNazi Holocaust, Stalin’s mass murders,and the Cambodian and Rwandangenocides. He views genocideas linked to issues of land as well asrace, nation, and expansion, applyingsocial, political, and economicanalysis to the struggle for land andthe control of property. He identifiesconnections, patterns, and featuresthat in nearly every case gave earlywarning of the catastrophe to come:racism or religious prejudice, territorialexpansionism, and cults of antiquityand agrarianism. The ideologiesthat have motivated perpetrators ofmass killings in the past persist inour new century, says Kiernan. Heurges that we heed the rich historicalevidence with its telltale signs forpredicting and preventing futuregenocides.Ben Kiernan is the A. Whitney GriswoldProfessor of History, Professorof international and area studies,and the founding director of theGenocide Studies Program at YaleUniversity.