POL101Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Raphael Lemkin, Pax Britannica, Comparative Politics
Aristotle: doing politics, art of being a political animal, active citizen, people are unfulfilled without
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Founded at Columbia in 1880
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John William Burgess defined as study of the state
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Later expanded to include administration, policy and the realities of government practice
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What is Politics?
Study of government policies (laws, regulations) and their effect
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Public policy
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Development of the state and institutions and the history of public policy
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Political development
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Comparing political institutions, political processes and public policy across countries
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Comparative politics
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International relation: relations among states
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Canadian politics : study of institutions, political processes and public policy in one state
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Fields
This is an insufficient definition - this is also true of police officers, settlers, and bullies
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Involves the application of force to pursue ends
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Traditionally, political communities are either states or intend to become states (in order to
allow for civil war)
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What about terrorism? Not a state? Calls itself a state
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Stanford Encyclopedia: War is an "actual, intentional and widespread armed conflict between
political communities" - distinct from bar fights, gang fights, or feuds between neighbours
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May be limited (Kuwait) o total (Hitler)
Scale
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May target military, industrial, or civilian targets, or combination
Methods
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May be naval, aerial, conducted by land-based
Service employed
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Napoleonic wars 1803-1815: defeat of Napoleon, destruction of the French empire,
establishment of the Council of Europe, Pax Britannica
Franco-Prussian War 1870-71: reunification of Germany and embitterment of France
World War 1: Russian Revolution, destruction of Ottoman and Habsburg Empire
World War 2: Bolshevization of Europe, decolonization of Southeast Asia, emergence of
human rights norms and treaties
Effects
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WW1 promised not to bomb civilians, by end of war they were.
In all wars, their scale and consequences are hard to control; war once unleashed acquires its
own logic and momentum, willful pursuit of bestial brutality that would have earlier horrified
those committing it
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Defined by
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Definition of War
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Separation of war from other fiends of human activity is extremely recent
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For most of European and wider world history, war was a natural reflex of sovereigns, merchants
and property less commoners
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Much of 16th and 17th centuries, reaching a peak of brutality in the 30 years' war - war was
defined as a civilian experience
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There was no distinction between war and politics, war and commerce, war and religion --> all
Relationship of war to other fields of human activity
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War & Genocide
Lecture 2.1: War & Genocide
January 9, 2017
12:00 PM
LECTURES Page 33
There was no distinction between war and politics, war and commerce, war and religion --> all
parties used war to capture territory, expand markets, and convert subjects
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Powerful motivation for war
Between Protestants and Roman Catholics within Europe and overseas (politics, profit, and
piety as motives)
Between Moors and Christians on Iberian Peninsula
Between Ottoman Muslims and Christian Europeans in southeast Europe
Currently between Sunni and Shiite
Religion
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Genos = race/tribe (Greek)
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Cida = killing of (Latin)
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Distinctly 20th century concept, invented by Raphael Lemkin
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Effort led to 1948 UN adoption of definition
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Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical
destruction in whole or in part
Imposing measures to prevent births within the group
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
Genocide means any acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical,
racial, or religions group :
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Political groups were excluded at the insistence of the Soviet Union
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Nazi persecution of mentally handicapped and lgbqt people
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Definition of genocide are always hugely controversial : when do massacres become genocides?
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Are as old as history
Assyrian Empire - sacking of Babylon in 689BC
Romans destroyed Carthage
Huns and Mongols wasted peoples and cities of Eurasia
In Human History
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European colonies in South, Central, and North America accompanied by the
enslavement, exploitation, murder, and death through disease of 30 to 50 million people
Justified as means to end "instrumental genocide"
Begins with 15th century discovery of new lands occupied by Aboriginal peoples
1850s : breach loading canons
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1860s : braking to avoid recoil
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1866 : volley guns firing multiple rounds
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1870s - 1880s : armour-piercing and exploding shells
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Effective killing made easier by technological advance
19th Century Genocide
Natural law and civilization required that Herero become a class of workers
serving whites
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Herero fought back
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1904: punitive expedition massacred thousands and drove rest into desert without
water
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None allowed to return
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Only 15k survived
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First genocide of 20th century
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German Southwest Africa (Namibia) : Germans wanted lands cleared for settlers
Ottoman Empire shrinking from 1830 --> collapse set in 1912
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Christians concentrated in Eastern Anatolia
Armenian Genocide
20th Century
Modern
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Genocide
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