ABSTRACT
Atfirst glance, the title of this chapter must seem an oxymoron. Few sociopolitical phenomena appear as cut-and-dried, from an ethical standpoint, as genocide – defined as the destruction of human groups, particularly (under international law) national, ethnic, racial, and religious ones. Genocide has been called “the crime of crimes”: the ne plus ultra of collective violence. Surely, if ethical considerations are to hold any sway in international affairs, they impose a blanket ban on acts of genocide, and a positive obligation to prevent it or, failing that, to suppress it with all due dispatch, and punish its perpetrators to the full limits of the law.
