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Mass atrocities were once a common occurrence in East Asia. Yet, over the past three decades, mass atrocities have declined in East Asia to the point of near elimination. This book explains how and why.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: Cataclysms
- 2: Decline
- 3: State Consolidation
- 4: The Developmental Trading State
- 5: Habits of Multilateralism
- 6: Power Politics
- 7: The 'Impossible State': North Korea
- 8: At the Crossroads: Myanmar
- 9: Future Trajectories
About the author
Alex J. Bellamy is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, The University of Queensland, Australia. He is also Non-Resident Senior Adviser at the International Peace Institute, New York and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. He recently served as a consultant to the United Nations office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and as Secretary of the High Level Advisory Panel on the Responsibility to Protect in Southeast Asia, chaired by former ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan. His publications include The Oxford Handbook on the Responsibility to Protect (OUP, 2015), The Responsibility to Protect: A Defense (OUP, 2014), and Massacres and Morality: Mass Atrocities in an Age of Civilian Immunity (OUP, 2012).
Summary
East Asia, until recently the scene of widespread blood-letting, has achieved relative peace. A region that at the height of the Cold War had accounted for around eighty percent of the world's mass atrocities has experienced such a decline in violence that by 2015 it accounted for less than five percent.
This book explains East Asia's 'other' miracle and asks whether it is merely a temporary blip in the historical cycle or the dawning of a new, and more peaceful, era for the region. It argues that the decline of mass atrocities in East Asia resulted from four interconnected factors: the consolidation of states and emergence of responsible sovereigns; the prioritization of economic development through trade; the development of norms and habits of multilateralism, and transformations in the practice of power politics. Particular attention is paid to North Korea and Myanmar, countries whose experience has bucked regional trends largely because these states have not succeeded in consolidating themselves to the point where they no longer depend on violence to survive. Although the region faces several significant future challenges, this book argues that the much reduced incidence of mass atrocities in East Asia is likely to be sustained into the foreseeable future.
Additional text
This is a timely, significant, and fascinating book that shines an important light on East Asia whilst teasing out broader lessons that will undoubtedly shape future studies on mass atrocities. An outstanding study. The regional analysis challenges Western narratives and asks us to reconsider international approaches to mass atrocity crimes in the wake of a striking decline in mass violence in East Asia.
