The Complexity of Evil
Perpetration and Genocide
1st Edition
Published on 18. December 2020
260 pages
978-1-9788-1433-2 (ISBN)
Description
Why do people participate in genocide? The Complexity of Evil responds to this fundamental question by drawing on political science, sociology, criminology, anthropology, social psychology, and history to develop a model which can explain perpetration across various different cases. Focusing in particular on the Holocaust, the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, and the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia, The Complexity of Evil model draws on, systematically sorts, and causally orders a wealth of scholarly literature and supplements it with original field research data from interviews with former members of the Khmer Rouge. The model is systematic and abstract, as well as empirically grounded, providing a tool for understanding the micro-foundations of various cases of genocide. Ultimately this model highlights that the motivations for perpetrating genocide are both complex in their diversity and banal in their ordinariness and mundanity.Download the open access ebook here.
More details
Person
TIMOTHY WILLIAMS is a junior professor of insecurity and social order at the Bundeswehr University Munich in Munich, Germany. His work has won awards from the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the German Peace Psychologist Association, and Marburg University. He is the coeditor, with Susanne Buckley-Zistel, of Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and Dynamics.
Content
Cover Series Page Title Page Copyright Dedication Contents List of Abbreviations Introduction Vignette I. Chandara: A Fearful Volunteer Enters the Tiger Zone Chapter 1. The Complexity of Evil: Introducing the Model Vignette II. Sokong: A Coerced Killer with a Conscience Chapter 2. Motivations Vignette III. Sokphary: A Female Unit Leader with a Sense of Responsibility for Her Subordinates Chapter 3. Facilitative Factors Vignette IV. Sopheak: An Interrogator Searching to Unearth Enemy Strings Chapter 4. Contextual Conditions Vignette V. Sokha: A Child Guard the Regime Turned On Chapter 5. Diversity, Complexity, Scope: Discussing the Model and Its Empirical Application Vignette VI. Ramy: A Garment Worker Participating in the Evacuation of Phnom Penh Conclusion Appendix: List of Interviewees Acknowledgments Glossary Notes References Index About the Author
