Compare and Contrast Between Rwanda and Darfur Genocide, from the Constructivism and Realism Perspectives

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Recommended: Critique of rwandan genocide

The analysis of the genocides that took place both in Rwanda and Sudan’s Darfur region exhibit some similarities as well as differences. The character of violence was similar in both cases, but in Rwanda the violence was more intense, participatory, and extraordinary. The violence in these two places took place in an environment that had experienced civil wars. It was a period of political transition which was further aggravated by ethnic nationalism and a conflict of ethnic populations that were living in close proximity. However, in the Rwandan genocide, the state is more centralized, compact, and effective. This is what explains the intensity and variation. The international response to these genocides through observers emphasized on using the genocide label to create domestic constituencies especially in the Rwandan case.

The Darfur case however, revealed that both of these strategies are not effective. Responding to the genocide in Darfur, the US officials declared the label genocide to be occurring. Thereafter, a politically civil-society coalition emerged so as to lobby the administration. The net outcome of these two scenarios however was the same in the absence of effective policies that could halt the genocide. The Rwandan genocide has always acted as the point of reference for similar genocides taking place around the world. Since the 2003 crisis in Darfur, a lot of comparisons have been made to Rwandan genocide. Observers have likened the Darfur genocide to what happened in Rwanda and of course giving it two connotations. First, the violence in the western parts of Sudan has been referred to another Rwanda, by basing their arguments on the nature of the violence. Since whatever was happening in Darfur is similar t...

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... different since the US was guided by the realism approach of not extending humanitarian help beyond their borders.

Works cited

Kupperman, Alan. Genocide: The Cases of Rwanda and Sudan. (2007)

Retrieved from http://www.fpri.org/footnotes/1215.200705.kuperman.genociderwandasudan.html

Lim, Timothy. Analyzing foreign policy: duties beyond borders? (2000)

Retrieved from http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/tclim/F09_Courses/425f09_duties.pdf

Merlingen, Michael. European security and defense policy: an implementation perspective, (2008). New York: Routledge publishers.

Shapiro, Alan. Genocide in Darfur, Inaction in the Security Council

Retrieved from http://www.teachablemoment.org/high/darfur.html

Straus, Scott. Rwanda and Darfur: A Comparative Analysis.

Retrieved from http://www.chgs.umn.edu/histories/occasional/StrausGSP2006.pdf

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