Getting away with Mass Murder: A Guide for Despots

Hosted by: AIIA Qld

The event will start on: Tuesday, 22 February 2011 6:00 PM

And will end on: Tuesday, 22 February 2011 7:30 PM

At Harris Terrace, Brisbane

46 George Street , Brisbane Queensland

    qld.branch@aiia.asn.au

Posted by: qld   

Clarification: This event was originally listed to start at 7pm.  It actually starts at 6:30pm, with drinks available from 6pm.  We apologise for any inconvenience.

The deliberate killing of civilians, whether in wartime or peacetime atrocities, is prohibited by international law and the world’s major ethical traditions.  Yet not only does mass killing persist but, even today, the perpetrators are as likely to succeed in their plans as fail when they resort to mass killing. Based on a study of around 100 cases of mass killing since the Second World War and drawing examples from atrocities in Chechnya, eastern Congo, Latin America and elsewhere, this paper sets out some of the key – and most successful – strategies employed by perpetrators to literally get away with mass murder, ranging from portray and offers some thoughts about how these strategies are best countered.

Alex Bellamy is Professor of International Security at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.  From 2007-2010 he was Executive Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.  His most recent book is Global Politics and the Responsibility to Protect (Routledge, 2011) and he is currently completing, Massacres and Morality: Mass Atrocities in an Age of Civilian Immunity (Oxford).  He is also co-editor of the journal Global Responsibility to Protect and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia.

Registration is not required for this event.