Part 1:
Group A: Milgram Experiment
A: The Milgram Experiment was an experiment conducted in which two participants were assigned the
roles of teacher and learner. The teacher was told to administer a shock if the learner answered a
question incorrectly, and the teacher could hear, but not see, the learner’s reactions to the shock.
B: One specific example of the Milgram experiment would be when one of the learners was
administered a particularly high voltage shock and claimed that he was having heart issues. The teacher
in that scenario continued to administer shocks even though the learner claimed to be struggling, and
eventually stopped responding.
C: The results of the Milgram experiment were substantial, as they demonstrated how people will
comply with malicious orders, even if they know their actions to be wrong. In the case where the learner
complained about heart issues and stopped responding, the teacher clearly showed their concern for
the learner’s well-being but continued to go along with the experiment anyway, even though they were
not being forced to do so.
Group B: Sovereignty
A: Sovereignty is a state’s right to govern itself or other states in the world. It is what allows a nation to
have a global representation, presence, and/or authority, especially in international groups such as the
United Nations.
B: An example of sovereignty would be the United State’s constitution and government. The United
States is governed “by the people, for the people,” such that other foreign powers cannot dictate what
it can, and can’t do. This power is what allowed America to retain its isolationist policy throughout some
wars and international groups. The actions of the nation can only be determined by that respective
nation.
C: Sovereignty is an important concept in the international community, as it allows each nation to
determine its actions and commitments. In some cases, however, sovereignty can lead to problematic
scenarios, such as the United States refusing to join the International Criminal Court. Without the
international influence and power that the United States holds, the ICC loses much of its potential
power to carry out its intended purpose.
Group C: Democide
A: Democide is the murder of any person or group of people ordered by a governmental body.
Democide includes the assassination of political figures, mass killings, and crimes such as genocide.
B: An example of Democide would be the order from the Russian government to invade Ukraine, and
more specifically the orders that allow the killing of Ukrainian citizens. Recent news has depicted the
mass slaughter of innocent people by Russian soldiers, and orders from Russian military officials that
permit the shooting of civilians.
C: Democide is an atrocity that occurs internationally, and the current events in Ukraine depict exactly
why it’s horrible. However, these events bring the crime of Democide to the forefront of international
news and allow everyday citizens to see the injustice of it. With each unfortunate instance of Democide,
hopefully, the world as a whole will see the evil of it and work towards eliminating it.
Group D: Melian Dialogue
A: The Melian Dialogue was an exchange between the people of Melos and Athens during the
Peloponnesian War. In this dialogue, the Athenian people consistently reject the Melian’s appeals to
morality, instead of arguing that the power of their empire justifies the siege of the Melos or the
surrender of the Melian people.
B: A specific example of this dialogue would be the lines from the Athenian negotiator, “It is a general
and necessary law of nature to rule wherever one can… We are merely acting in accordance with it, and
we know that your or anybody else with the same power as ours would be acting in precisely the same
way.” (404 B.C.)
C: The Melian dialogue, and this quote specifically, demonstrate the ideology of the Athenian people
during this time, now known as Athenian realism. This belief that those in power have a right to exercise
their power over others can explain the mentality behind many of the crimes in the world, including
genocide. The Athenian’s view of the world is one of many contributions to the ongoing cycle of violence
in the world.
Group E: International Criminal Court
A: The International Criminal Court is a court of law, managed by many different sovereign nations,
designed to investigate individuals who threaten the wellbeing of the global community.
B: In 2009 and 2010, two arrest warrants were made against the President of the Republic of Sudan,
Omar Al Bashir. One of the many crimes he was tried for was the genocide of the Darfuri people.
C: Cases like the Al Bashir one are important examples of the utility of an International Criminal Court.
At times, sovereign nations may conduct horrible crimes on a population and face little to no
consequence, but the ICC is able to address those situations and bring justice to them. Though
international crimes are still bound to happen, the ICC assures the means of outlawing and punishing
those very crimes.
Part 2
Evil Men Passage
“Children I never could do… I never could, on my own, target and shoot them… however one
thing I can say… We lift her up like that, and tossed her into the well… He used that as a stand, said
“Maa-maa,” then [pause]… he threw himself into the well… I primed the grenade and threw it into the
well” (100-102). There is a lot that can be pulled from this quote and used to make assumptions about
humankind. Starting with the soldier who refused to admit to killing kids to later admitting this horrible
scenario. The soldier was most likely extremely ashamed of his actions because they stuck with him for
so long. It was most likely him or the woman and child and he really did not hesitate or describe himself
as having any internal conflict, which begs the question, does he really feel bad or is he just saying that?
It could be that over the years with all the emotional burdens he has to carry that he has become very
emotionally distant. This is the easiest answer because it makes it understandable for those who aren’t
emotionally distant, even though the acts are inconceivable and unforgivable, the simple explanation
they aren’t emotionally stable is an acceptable answer. Secondly, the child who threw themselves into
certain death just to be with their mother. The child was 4 years old, so he/she most likely did not
understand the concepts of life and death, only love and comfort which he found in his mother. There
was no description of the child hesitating either, it describes him searching for something to be able to
get to the top of the well, and then jumping in. One can only imagine the mother describing to the child
to stay with her and everything would be fine when the conflict started, which makes the situation even
more emotionally jarring.
Part 3
Task 1
Cambodian Genocide
A communist group called the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, gained control of Cambodia starting in April
of 1975. The group used the United States’ war with Vietnam as a distraction as they slowly began to
dissipate Cambodian culture. Khmer Rouge claimed Cambodia had gained too much influence from
Capitalist areas like the West and Vietnam. The citizens who were in support of the communist group
were viewed as “pure,” with the others being “impure”. The latter citizens were forced into prisons. The
regime even created schools to “re-educate” the young citizens of Cambodia. This is just one example of
how Cambodian culture and social aspects were erased during the years of this genocide. Additionally,
the Khmer Rouge abolished private property rights, religious functions, minority languages and
currency, and other civil and political rights. They believed that every aspect of Cambodian culture was
tarnished by outside influence.
After being completely stripped of one’s culture, the citizens of Cambodia were detained
effortlessly for trivial actions. “S-21” was the most common prison for the citizens to be sent to. At this
destination, prisoners would have to witness family members being tortured and killed in front of them.
Out of thousands of people sent to this prison, only about a dozen survived. “Traitors" that were sent to
this prison mostly included military personnel and people that posed a physical threat to the Khmer
Rouge. They also directly targeted educated citizens. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even people who
wore glasses were targeted and killed. 80% of the casualties during this genocide were ethnic minorities,
such as the Chinese, Vietnamese, and Muslim Cham.
From this, it seems the most likely reasoning for the Khmers Rouge’s action can stem from
political power and a need to spread communism, this of course is just an assumption. The Khmer Rouge
aimed to destroy Cambodian beliefs and cultures and replace them with propaganda. This is similar to
most genocide cases, in the way that one group views themselves as superior once they get a taste of
power, proven by the Zimbardo experiment. This "cause" of this genocide would most likely be for
political reasons, being as Pol Pot wanted to spread communism, and reject ideas of outside influence.
This varies from all other cases of genocide, some starting strictly because of biological beliefs, or disgust
with the culture.
Rwandan genocide
A Hutu revolution in 1959 forced some 330,000 Tutsis to flee, making them an even smaller minority.
Originally Habyarimana, believed Tutsis were RPF accomplices and arrested hundreds of them, and
between 1990 and 1993, government officials directed massacres toward the Tutsis killing hundreds.
Habyarimana wanted to settle the conflict and called for a government where the RPF is included. This
move angered Hutu extremists who soon took action to prevent it. The first major move that sparked
the Rwandan genocide was when the plane of the Rwandan president Habyarimana, was shot out of the
sky by an unknown culprit. Within an hour of this plane crash, the Presidential Guard, together with
members of the Rwandan armed forces set up roadblocks and barricades and began exterminating
Tutsis and Hutus. Three months before this genocide began, Human Rights Watch presented evidence
that weapons were being purchased and dispersed among citizens. Apparently, 3 boxes of machetes
were shipped from Belgium to Rwanda and were hidden between sheets, which machetes happened to
be the main killing weapon of choice in this case. This was because there was a short supply of firearms
and explosives, which leads to the assumption that when these weapons were used, they were used as
efficiently and strategically as possible.
Bosnian genocide
Before the Bosnian genocide, Yugoslavia was a country where people of many different ethnic groups
and religions resided together. But everything changed in the early 1990s when their communist regime
was beginning to fall. Ethnic tensions were rising, and people who had lived peacefully together for
years turned against each other and took up arms. Starting in April 1992, Serbia set out to ethnically
cleanse Bosnian territory by systematically removing all Bosnian Muslims, known as Bosniaks. Serbia,
together with ethnic Bosnian Serbs, attacked Bosniaks with former Yugoslavian military equipment and
surrounded Sarajevo, the capital city. Many Bosniaks were driven into concentration camps, where
women and girls were gang-raped and other civilians were tortured, starved, and murdered.
Not only is the Bosnian genocide an important case to study, but it is also the birthplace of one of
the most brutal atrocities in genocidal history: Srebrenica. Srebrenica was one of the few UN-declared
safe zones in the former Yugoslavia at the time. But on July 11th, 1995, the Serbs committed the biggest
massacre in Europe since World War II. The massacre of Srebrenica took place over 11 days with over
8,000 casualties (2,000 on the first day) where they only killed men and boys.
Trying to determine the cause of genocide is a tricky task, because not all genocidal occurrences
are caused by one single factor, rather multiple variables. The Bosnian genocide was the result of one
group wanting to ethnically cleanse a certain group, which means the Serbs thought they were more
deserving of life than the Bosniaks. This isn’t a thought process specific to genocide though. There are
countless examples of a group thinking they are better than another simply because of their religion or
ethnicity. This shows that perpetrators of genocide lack the ability to see the good in all people and in
the end commit acts that cannot be undone, even if they say they are “following orders”
Task 2
Hypothesis One:
Elites who fear losing and/ or maintaining their power and control can advise radical steps to remove
opponents or anyone that could be construed as the reason he or she is losing power and subsequently
viewed as an enemy of the state.
Hypothesis Two:
The perception and indoctrination that a party in control displays against a certain people, using them to
carry all the blame for major problems, can cause great hatred and bias that can later form into
committing acts of violence.
Hypothesis Three:
The act of dehumanization of a people into viewing that group as less than human creates a perception
that allows humans to commit acts of violence at an increased rate to those around them that fit into
the group with a loss of sympathy.
Part 4
What is genocide? The deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic
group to destroy that nation or group. Ok, you probably knew that. What are some examples of
genocides? You might think of the Holocaust, which, indeed, is a genocide. But we want to be aware of
other examples as well. There are many genocides from all around the world such as the Rwanda
genocide, the Uyghur genocide, the Cambodian genocide, the Tlatelolco massacre, and the Nanjing
massacre; some genocides are even currently ongoing. There are gruesome details about these
genocides, such as how the Cambodian forests were littered with blue plastic bags which were used by
the Khmer Rouge to suffocate and kill their victims. At some point, you might think to yourself: how are
people capable of committing mass murder? We will look into the Stanford Prison Experiment which
shows that good people, like you and me, can be driven to do horrific acts, given the right
circumstances. As James Lovelock once said, ‘there aren’t just bad people that commit genocide; we are
all capable of it.’