The Slippery Slope to Genocide : Reducing Identity Conflicts and Preventing Mass Murder

This book identifies genocide as the culmination of conflicts over identity. Genocide is a pathologically defensive reaction made by people who feel that they are in danger of extinction. This poses a security dilemma that can only be broken by quelling the feelings of threat and fear that prompt mass violence. In this volume, noted thinkers and practitioners of conflict management, who hail from ten different countries, present ideas on how to prevent identity issues from causing fear and escalating into genocide. They discuss the concepts and practices involved in changing structures and attitudes to ease tensions, as well as the measures that interveners must take to work in the midst of conflicting groups.

I. William Zartman is Jacob Blaustein Professor Emeritus at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington DC. His books include Cowardly Lions: Missed Opportunities to Prevent Deadly Conflict and State Collapse and Negotiation and Conflict Management.

Mark Anstey is Emeritus Professor at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and was a professor with Michigan State University in Dubai from 2008 to 2011. He has also taught in several South African universities. Involved in promoting peace in South Africa, he served as Director of Monitoring (Eastern Cape) for the Independent Electoral Commission in the country's historic 1994 elections.

Paul Meerts is Advisor to the Director of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations at Clingendael. He is a visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges), the University of Economics (Prague), and the UNESCO Institute for Water Education (Delft).

All three editors are on the Steering Committee for the Processes of International Negotiation Network at the International Institute for Applied Systems.