ABSTRACT

Postgenocide intervention is not in most cases as dramatic as intervention for the purpose of stopping a genocide; peace is rarely as exciting, in the popular imagination, as war. A inhibition to the creation of a healthy postgenocide society exists in the form of unresolved factional disputes between former victims and persecutors, or their supporters, or even from political squabbles predating the genocide. The generalizations about postgenocidal societies are only as useful as each individual scholar seeks to make them. Any interventionist aid that reaches postgenocidal societies is welcomed, but there are often victims who see their societies as being on their own. The issues facing the field of research into postgenocide societies and intervention are many. A final matter requiring attention when looking at the issue of postgenocide societies and intervention is its obverse, that of prevention. Primary prevention serves a preemptive function.