Defining Genocide

The subject of genocide and crimes against humanity is critically important and, tragically, it is not just the stuff of history. In July 2004 alone, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued reports detailing how thousands of civilians have been killed, hundreds of women and girls have been raped, and more than one million people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and farms in the Darfur region of Sudan by Janjaweed militia working in coordination with Sudanese government troops.

Patricia Marchak’s Reigns of Terror addresses this subject, defining mass crimes committed by government authorities or state-backed groups as state terror directed against its own citizens. Surveying nine case studies—ranging from the Holocaust to Rwanda to Argentina—she seeks to understand why states commit grave human rights abuses and what conditions are most likely to produce organized repression. Marchak argues that while racist or authoritarian...