Genocide

Ideology, and involved, in the case of the German Jews, a group that appeared to be relatively assimilated with the dominant group. In a separate chapter, Kuper explores what he calls "related atrocities," which include the assaults on political groups that he thinks rightly belong under the heading of genocide. Prominent in this category are Stalin's massacre of "kulaks" and the Indonesian massacre of Communists after the aborted 1965 coup, as well as the selective Poi Pot slaughter of Cambodians. In a final chapter, Northern Ireland (where the British government has intervened) and South Africa (where international opinion has an effect) serve as examples of potentially genocidal situations where genocide has been effectively averted. Kuper concludes, consequently, that genocide is a function of structural conditions rather than innate human capacities. If that is a modest conclusion, it is not meaningless; and the discussion generally breaks new ground to serious effect.