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Genocide as a public health risk
(Via Instapundit) Dr. Eric Larson and Dr. Reva Adler have published an interesting article on analysing genocide as a public health risk. They point out that in the 20th century far more humans were killed by genocide than by war (192 vs. 110 million), and suggest that we begin by studying the preconditions of genocide and its warning signs.
I'd list disarmament of the victims as one of the preconditions, of course...
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(I post this only for general information going forward. According to Wikipedia.org, the following is the definition of 'genocide':)
The [Geneva] Convention (in article 2) defines genocide as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:"
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
The first draft of the Convention included political killings but that language was removed at the insistence of the Soviet Union. The exclusion of social and political groups as targets of genocide in this legal definition has been criticized. In common usage of the word, these target groups are often included.
"I'd list disarmament of the victims as one of the preconditions..." Ah, but David, you are logical and have read your history. Modern academic social scientists are not and have not. Following the party line is what matters to them.