ABSTRACT
This Afterword draws on the chapters in this volume, integrating their rich and diverse insights with other emerging scholarship and contemporary controversies over famine and the war crime of starvation in, among other places, Bosnia, Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela. Introducing the framework of ‘famine denialism,’ it explores the ways in which governments that preside over famines deny their existence or misrepresent them, at the time when they are being inflicted and subsequently, and the legacy of denials for subsequent memorialization. The chapter explores issues around the administrative, military, diplomatic and social politics of mass starvation raised by contributors to the volume. Finally, it reflects on how humanitarian interests and scripts have shaped how past famines are represented and how current and future famines may be permitted or designed.
