Published on November 23, 2020
Note from the Co-Directors
Dear Friends,
Much like many events of 2020, the U.S. presidential election has been a reminder that atrocity prevention requires our attention as much at home as abroad. Within the United States we are learning that even strong and proven institutions cannot be taken for granted; they must be actively protected and nurtured.
At I-GMAP we are dedicated to breaking down conventional barriers and building bridges between 鈥渦s and them鈥 in all its manifestations and the forms of tribalism that fuel mass violence. This includes the 鈥渦s vs. them鈥 thinking that drives racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, ableism, ageism and other forms of categorizing groups of people. It includes the 鈥渦s vs. them鈥 positioning of people as separate from all other living beings. It also includes the 鈥渦s vs. them鈥 mentality that separates academic disciplines; scholars and practitioners; domestic and foreign policy actors; and the Global North and Global South. As we have seen throughout history, 鈥渦s vs. them鈥 either implicitly or very explicitly perpetuates beliefs about superiority and inferiority, and those attitudes are both shaped by and continue to shape public policies and societal norms.
As has become clich茅 in the era of COVID-19, the disruptions of 2020 provide an opportunity to not simply return to the old normal, but to create a new and better normal. The recent and upcoming events mentioned in this Newsletter reflect our commitment to building bridges, imagining a new normal, and being part of the process of getting there. We look forward to continuing this work in the virtual space for now, and to returning to more personal exchanges in the future.
- Nadia Rubaii & Max Pensky
Upcoming Events
Professor Whigham Presents for South African Institutions
Our very own Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of genocide and mass atrocity prevention will present on "Memory Encroachments: Re-Plotting the Past in Post-Atrocity Europe, Argentina, and the United States" on Tuesday, November 24th at 12 noon EST. The webinar is hosted by the Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre and the Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre.
This presentation offers an analytical framework for understanding an increasingly popular form of post-atrocity memorial practice as a kind of historical dialogue and a means for the construction of public memory. Memory encroachments are sites of memory whose central goal is to intrude or intervene upon the daily life of passersby. Unlike traditional forms of memorialization, which utilize scale or recognizable architectural forms to declare themselves publicly, to make themselves known, memory encroachments do not call attention to themselves so obviously, nor do they serve as sites of destination. In most cases, they are sites that one happens upon on the way to other things not related to memory. The presentation will examine an array of memory encroachments, including the Stolpertsteine, or stumbling stones, of Europe and the baldosas por la memoria in Argentina.
Prior registration is required:
Save the Date: Spring 2021 Webinars
Please keep an eye out for our upcoming series of webinars to kick off the new year.
We have set a date for the February 11th webinar and we will post additional information
and registration links for all of the webinars in the coming weeks.
Month |
Topic |
January |
Two webinars on What a Biden-Harris Administration Means for Atrocity Prevention:
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February |
Thursday, February 11, 2021 from 10:00am to noon EST, in collaboration with the Dallaire Institute for Children, Peace and Security |
March |
A Conversation with Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the new Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide at the United Nations |
April |
Indigenous Priorities and Perspectives in Atrocity Prevention |
Recent News
I-GMAP鈥檚 November Webinar: Transitional Justice and Atrocity Prevention in Colombia
We would like to apologize to you for the multiple technical malfunctions that have unfortunately started the event late and ended it prematurely. This has been a University-wide issue here at 91社区.
Once our Information Technology team has addressed the issues definitively, we will be back in touch with you with updated information on the rescheduled event. We sincerely hope that you will be able to rejoin. For those unable to do so, the event will be recorded and available on the I-GMAP website.
Again, we are very sorry to have to reschedule the event and for your inconvenience. Thank you for your patience and we hope to be back in touch with you shortly.
Our second webinar of the semester on Thursday, November 19th was a conversation with four distinguished panelists about the transitional justice process in Colombia.
The 2016 Final Accord between the Colombian government and the Armed Revolutionary
Forces of Colombia (FARC) sought to end the Western Hemisphere's longest internal
armed conflict. The outcome of complex and protracted negotiations conducted in Havana,
the Final Accord developed the most wide-ranging and complex experiment in transitional
justice ever attempted. The Final Accord included comprehensive proposals for land
reform, the eradication of illegal drug production, wide-ranging programming for reparations
and support for victims, and a Special Jurisdiction for Peace to bring alternative
forms of legal justice to high-level perpetrators, among many other innovations.
Even supporters of the Final Accord's holistic approach predicted an uphill struggle
to implement the full range of its many different components. Opinions vary on how
to assess gains and losses over the past four years. One thing however is clear: the
killing has not stopped. Hundreds of people - in particular local human rights activists,
members of Indigenous communities, and former FARC members - have been murdered.
In this webinar, we asked our invited experts on the Final Accord and transitional
justice in Colombia to help us understand the causes of ongoing atrocity violence
in the country, and to help identify possible ways forward. How has the structure
and implementation of the Final Accord's comprehensive approach contributed to atrocity
prevention in Colombia? What prospects does transitional justice in Colombia have
for preventing atrocity crimes?
Panelists:
| Mark Freeman Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) |
|
Camila de Gamboa |
| Mariana Casij Pe帽a Research Associate with the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) |
| Nelson Camilo S谩nchez Assistant Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law Director, Center for International & Comparative Law Director, Human Rights Program Director, International Human Rights Law Clinic |
Once we have the video closed captioned we will post it to our .
Virtual Screening and Talkback with Producers of 鈥淭he Lesson鈥
On Monday, November 9th, we hosted a screening of the documentary The Lesson. The film is the personal journey of director Elena Horn who returns to her small hometown to follow four children as they experience Holocaust education in the public school system in rural Germany. Filmed over five years, from 2014 to 2019, the film is a window into deeply rooted social and political attitudes in Germany amidst the resurgence of the far-right, xenophobia and a fractured, disparate collective memory of the nation鈥檚 history.
Around fifty people joined us for a virtual screening of the documentary. After watching this powerful film together, albeit at some great distances, we gathered virtually with the film鈥檚 director, Elena Horn, and cinematographer, Alessandro Leonardi, for a moderated question and answer session. The audience asked inquisitive questions of our guests about Holocaust education and how it may serve as a preventive tool.
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I-GMAP Participates in Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention Annual Focal Points Meeting
On Wednesday, October 28, I-GMAP Co-Director Nadia Rubaii and Dr. Kerry Whigham, assistant professor of GMAP, along with Dr. Susan Appe of University at Albany, kicked off the 11th Meeting of the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (la Red Latinoamericana para la Prevenci贸n del Genocidio y Atrocidades Masivas) by facilitating an interactive workshop on the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding challenges for atrocity prevention. The concepts discussed in this initial workshop helped guide discussions in subsequent sessions.
The virtual meeting, co-sponsored by the Network (la Red), the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocity, and the Stanley Center for Peace and Security, included focal points from countries throughout the region as well as representatives from civil society. I-GMAP Assistant Director Stephen Capobianco attended as an observer. The meeting provided a forum to prioritize activities for 2021. Among the projects prioritized is a follow up project with I-GMAP building on last year鈥檚 report on Indigenous Rights and developing a small number of detailed case studies in select countries.
I-GMAP鈥檚 Global Reach with Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Darcie DeAngelo
Since our last newsletter, two new interviews came out with Dr. Darcie DeAngelo, a Charles E. Scheidt Postdoctoral Fellow in Atrocity Prevention. Darcie interviewed for the children鈥檚 podcast called, 鈥淟ittle Da Vincis鈥 by eigth-grader, Christian Amyx. She also interviewed for The Conversation where she explains how rats have had a positive impact on the relationship between villagers who live near minefields and soldiers who clear the mines. Darcie鈥檚 work with The Conversation was also picked up by , which has a 60 million person reach.
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Dr. Darcie DeAngelo Presents at Post-Conflict Transitions Workshop
Dr. Darcie DeAngelo also presented at a November 6-7 workshop, Transitioning to a New Life: Post-conflict trajectories of former combatants in South and Southeast Asia, 1945-Present, as part of joint effort by Peter Keppy, NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Roel Frakking, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, and Abdul Wahid, Gadjah Mada University.
The workshop selected authors who could speak to the central themes, this is the description: "In the study of post-conflict transitions, a leading question has been how former soldiers and non-state combatants can 鈥榬eturn to society鈥. Former combatants have often played key roles in the political developments of their respective societies, and in cases of renewed conflict frequently were key players. In this workshop, we are interested in the various trajectories that former combatants in countries across South and Southeast Asia have charted for themselves, and the ways in which their respective governments have tried 鈥 with more or less success 鈥 to deal with the problems associated with the 鈥榬eintegration鈥 of former combatants."
Darcie鈥檚 paper, War and Postwar Technologies: Cambodian state il/legitimacy through landmine clearance with rats, depicts the career trajectory of soldier to deminer in the 20th and 21st centuries of Cambodia. It describes the processes of transforming relationships after war in a landmine detection platoon. Its focus is on the relationships between villagers and landmine detectors, deminers, as well as deminers relationships to each other who are often former enemy combatants.
Fall 2020 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise
In 2019, we hosted the first Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise at 91社区 University and this year we brought the event back to campus. Although we were not able to be in person physically, we were very pleased to be able to transform the event into a virtual and collaborative space. From October 30th through November 1st, 75 students from eight institutions (91社区, SUNY Brockport, West Point Military Academy, United States Air Force Academy, United States Naval Academy, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, Yale University, and Dartmouth College) participated in our second Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise.
The simulation provided both a practical atrocity intervention learning experience and served as a laboratory for decision-making and conflict analysis. Students were divided into six groups, with each group acting as a different international actor in the simulated conflict. Over the course of six rounds of the simulation exercise, students assessed information in real time through highly realistic materials, proposed policies and programs aimed at trying to nudge the country away from conflict and dealt with the immediate and longer-term aftermath of the conflict. Between each round of play, all participants met together in a main Zoom room for a shared assessment.
Within two days of concluding the simulation, three undergraduate students reached out to us to sign up for the GMAP minor and we expect that number to grow after we complete additional outreach.
Each team had at least two advisors present for all rounds. Advisors worked with groups as they digested new information, revised their risk assessments, revisited their policy options and preferences, and decided whether to share information with other teams. Each group had an expert advisor and this semester we were fortunate enough to include:
- Valerie Fowler, a career member of the U.S. Senior Foreign Service, with the rank of Minister Counselor.
- Julia Fromholz, director of the Rule of Law and Governance Program at Arizona State University Sandra Day O鈥機onnor College of Law and is based in Washington, DC.
- Tod Lindberg, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute
- Vasu Mohan, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems鈥 (IFES) regional director for Asia-Pacific and technical lead on election, conflict and security.
- Jeff Sizemore, Military Advisor, Atrocity Prevention Lead, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, at the Office of Security and Human Rights of the U.S. State Department.
- Eduardo Gonz谩lez, a human rights consultant and sociologist, specialized in transitional justice.
We also had 12 Faculty advisors including: Dr. Michael Cangemi (a 91社区 PhD), West Point; Dr. Kerry Whigham, I-GMAP; LTC Ron Alcala, West Point; Dr. Susan Appe, SUNY Albany; Dr. David Frey, West Point; Dr. Darcie DeAngelo, I-GMAP; Dr. Michael Geheran, West Point; Dr. Jenny Escobar, I-GMAP; Dr. Kirsten Cooper, West Point; Dr. Alex Nikulin, 91社区; COL Dr. Alan Beitler, West Point; Dr. Nadia Rubaii, 91社区.
Learn more about the Fall 2020 Atrocity Intervention Simulation Exercise on that part of our website.
Publications by I-GMAP Team
Two peer-reviewed publications have been released this past month by members of the I-GMAP team. Check out our list of recent publications on our website.
Expanding the reach of representativeness, discretion and collaboration: The unrealized potential of public administration research in atrocity prevention.
Appe, S., Rubaii, N. and Whigham, K. (2020). Expanding the Reach of Representativeness, Discretion and Collaboration: The Unrealized Potential of Public Administration Research in Atrocity Prevention. Public Administration Review. Advance online publication:
Abstract:
Mass atrocities constitute a 鈥渨icked鈥 problem that warrants greater attention from public administration scholars. The role bureaucrats have in committing or contributing to mass atrocities is well documented, yet bureaucrats also have the potential to play crucial roles in stopping current, preventing future, and responding to past atrocities. Despite the central role of public administrators in mass atrocities and prevention, public administration scholarship is largely silent on such topics, effectively ceding this problem to other disciplines and professions. Using three pressing challenges facing atrocity prevention practitioners and scholars as examples, this article illustrates how public administration theories and public administrators in practice can contribute to prevention by focusing their attention on upstream (before conflict) stages. The overarching goal is to frame atrocity prevention in terms that will resonate with public administration scholars while also providing a roadmap for the field's engagement with these issues.
The public administration imperative of applying an atrocity prevention lens to COVID-19 responses: Leveraging the global pandemic for positive structural change and greater social equity.
Rubaii, N., Whigham, K., and Appe, S. (2020). The public administration imperative of applying an atrocity prevention lens to COVID-19 responses: Leveraging the global pandemic for positive structural change and greater social equity. Administrative Theory & Praxis, online first. doi:
Abstract:
The pandemic is already forcing many individuals, businesses, and governments to rethink much of what they do and how they do it. As such, it presents an opportunity for public administrators to reimagine the criteria they use when designing and implementing programs and policies, and to more actively engage in prevention of identity-based violence. In this contribution, we suggest a new analytical lens to guide public administrators鈥 decision making, one informed by the theory and practice of mass atrocity prevention. This perspective recognizes that the decisions and actions of public administrators in response to the pandemic will influence whether individual countries and the global community writ large will be at increased risk of mass atrocities or if they will be more resilient and better positioned to prevent such atrocities. The COVID-19 pandemic represents both an imperative and an opportunity to reduce risks of mass atrocities, and public administrators have a vital role to play in this process.
Summer 2021 Internship Funds Available!
Are you or would you like to be a GMAP minor? Could you use $7,000 to pursue a summer internship? Do you want to gain experience in a field related to genocide and mass atrocity prevention?
Yes, yes, and yes? Then you should explore the Bloom Family Summer Internship in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.
Through a generous donation by Susan Bloom '80 and Steven Bloom '78, LHD '10, I-GMAP is proud to coordinate the Bloom Family Summer Internship in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention! Successful applicants may receive up to $7,000 for their summer internship in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. In any given year up to six summer interns may be awarded.
Who is eligible?
Currently matriculated 91社区 undergraduate students who have been offered or will work with I-GMAP for a placement in a full- or part-time internship for the summer may apply. You must be completing the internship before you graduate, and you need to meet the following criteria:
- Declared Genocide and Mass Atrocity and Prevention undergraduate minor
- Must be in good academic standing
Preference will be given to students who are participating in the 91社区 Scholars Program.
Do I need to secure an internship before applying?
No. Although, having a clear plan for obtaining an internship will increase your chances of securing an internship and being competitive for this award. I-GMAP will assist you in reviewing your options, provide feedback on your internship application materials, and offer consult during your internship experience.
How to apply:
In the online application system please upload the following:
- An application essay;
- Upload your essay in the "Other Documents" section of the application. The essay must describe your motivations and interests in GMAP as linked to your academic major(s) and express your ambitions and expectations of potential placement as a summer intern.
- a copy of your transcript;
- and a recent resume.
Recipients will be considered and selected by the Genocide and Mass Atrocity and Prevention Advisory Board. Students will be selected on the basis of academic performance and an application essay.
Where am I able to intern?
Check out our internship resources for students.
What if I'm also interested in earning academic credit?
I-GMAP offers GMAP 395 as a wrap-around online course for your summer internship. You can register for 1-6 credits depending on length of your summer internship. These credits may count toward the GMAP minor.
NEW COURSE FOR SPRING 2021!
In this upcoming Spring 2021 semester, we are excited to offer the first section of GMAP 550, Mechanisms for Atrocity Prevention!
In the Spring, we will be working on a significant research project - in partnership with the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocity - with direct public policy implications related to the role of memory sites in atrocity prevention around the world.
This variable (3-6) credit course is open to GMAP graduate certificate students, as well as qualified undergraduate GMAP minor students with permission of the instructor(s). The course will be co-taught by Drs. Whigham, Pensky, Rubaii and Capobianco, and will have components of synchronous and asynchronous learning. Please mark Mondays from 1:40pm to 4:40pm on your schedule.
Course description:
Spaces of memory can contribute to atrocity prevention, though they do not always do so. Over the course of the semester, we will work as a team to develop a framework for analyzing if and how memory sites around the world contribute to atrocity prevention. Our findings will allow us to develop a set of guiding principles for incorporating an atrocity prevention mandate into the programming of memory sites. As transitional justice has grown as a field and as an international mandate in post-atrocity contexts over the past several decades, the memorialization of past atrocities through the construction of physical spaces of memory has increasingly been recognized as an essential aspect of this complex process. Often, these spaces of memory are touted not only as honoring past victims, but also as important tools for preventing future violence. Can a site of memory really play a role in preventing further acts of atrocity violence? If so, when and how are sites of memory a preventive force? As a class, we will first delve into core concepts of memory and risk analysis. We will collectively create a global database of memory sites, before developing a questionnaire for these sites to measure the impact of their programming on atrocity prevention.
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