Purify and Destroy: The Political Uses of Massacre and Genocide

There is a popular movement in genocide research to portray genocide as arising from anything other than hate (e.g. Moshman, 2005). From a topdown perspective, this makes sense. After all, the case has been made that there are instrumental (e.g. land grabs) and social psychological considerations— careerism, social bonding—as well as ideological and contextual considerations that all contribute to the genocide recipe and have little to do with hate per se. Yet the current trend makes it seem as if hate crimes and old ethnic enmities do not exist.