ABSTRACT
The slogan “Never Again,” said human rights scholar Thomas Cushman, “embodies in crystalline form the preventative discourse” that pervades comparative genocide studies: Through empirical and scientific observation of operationally defined cases of genocide, one can isolate the variables and causal mechanisms at work and predict future genocides. Cushman viewed such optimism skeptically. He rejected the notion that all genocides can be prevented or suppressed. But he recognized that some can be, and he argued for strategies sensitive to historical context and the practical limitations on key actors. The mission statement of the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, based at the organization's New York headquarters, “acts as a catalyst to raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, to alert relevant actors where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action”.
