About the lecture:
 

The role of ideology is one of the most debated issues in contemporary scholarship on genocides, mass killing, and similar atrocity crimes. Scholars have traditionally presented radical ideologies as sources of intergroup hatred and utopian visions of society, which encourage ideological believers to perpetrate extreme violence against civilians. Yet 21st Century scholars have largely rejected this ideology-centred story – emphasising that few atrocity perpetrators look like such ideological true believers. I challenge both of these perspectives. Ideology is indeed crucial in explaining why and how genocides and mass killings occur, but in ways quite different from the traditional story. Specifically, I make two central claims. First, atrocity-justifying ideologies do not simply motivate 'true believers'. There are a range of ways in which ideologies may shape political behaviour, and they can even exert a powerful influence over individuals who do not privately believe in the ideology at all. Second, I argue that the most important ideological foundations of genocide, atrocities and mass killings do not lie in radical ideals, values or hatreds. Instead, ideologies justify mass killings by drawing on relatively familiar notions of self-defence and punishment, but ones which are attached to extremely distorted perceptions of the world. I substantiate these claims with reference to a number of cases - in particular, the Stalinist Great Terror, Allied Bombing of Germany and Japan in World War II, and recent Islamist-Fundamentalist atrocities.

The speaker will share a copy of the draft introduction of his forthcoming book Ideology and Mass Killings, upon request after the lecture.