PS 203 – Reading Questions (10.28.16) – Rwanda Genocide

Power, “Bystanders to genocide”
1. Samantha Power identifies three competing explanations for the US failure to respond to the Rwandan genocide. What are they?
2. What were the Arusha Accords all about? What started the conflict that led to the accords in the first place?
3. Who was Romeo Dallaire? How much support did he have from the international community when he arrived in Rwanda?
4. What event served as the catalyst for the genocide?
5. What is the Somalia analogy? How did it impact extremists’ plans? And how did it shape Western responses to Rwanda?
6. According to Power, what were the three weaknesses of American diplomacy prior to the genocide?
7. What was the primary mandate of the Belgian, French, and Italian troops in Rwanda after the killing began?
8. According to Power, to what extent were US officials aware that genocide was taking place in Rwanda?
9. Why does she believe American officials shunned the use of “the g-word”?
10. Did American officials ever consider intervening in Rwanda with military force?
11. What was the US response to Brussels’s request for “cover”?
12. How important was the use of radio in the genocide? What are some things that could have been done to stop radio broadcasts? What was the American response to these proposals?
13. Power says, “What is most frightening about this story is that it testifies to a system that in effect worked.” What were Clinton’s three goals?
14. How do policy officials view their performance in retrospect?
15. What is Samantha Power up to these days?
16. How do we know when a genocide is a genocide?
17. Under what conditions (if any) do you think world powers have a moral obligation to intervene to stop genocide?
18. Under what conditions (if any) do you think world powers have an interest to intervene to stop genocide?
19. Would you support the creation of a world peacekeeping force whose purpose was to deploy and stop genocides, knowing that you could be drafted to serve in it?