Britain and genocide: historical and contemporary parameters of national responsibility

Abstract

This article (originally given as the Annual War Studies Lecture at King's College, London, on 25 January 2010) challenges the assumption that Britain's relationship to genocide is constituted by its ‘vigilance’ towards the genocide of others. Through a critical overview of the question of genocide in the historical and contemporary politics of the British state and society, the article suggests their wide-ranging, complex relationships to genocide. Utilising a conception of genocide as multi-method social destruction and applying the interpretative frames of the genocide literature, it argues that the British state and elements of identifiably British populations have been involved directly and indirectly in genocide in a number of different international contexts. These are addressed through five themes: the role of genocide in the origins of the British state; the problem of genocide in the Empire and British settler colonialism; Britain's relationships to twentieth-century European genocide; its role in the genocidal violence of decolonisation; and finally, Britain's role in the genocidal crises of the post-Cold War world. The article examines the questions of national responsibility that this survey raises: while rejecting simple ideas of national responsibility as collective guilt, it nevertheless argues that varying kinds of responsibility for genocide attach to British institutions, leaders and population groups at different points in the history surveyed.

Evoking values or doing politics?

“…Indeed, respect and tolerance are labelled "British values", rather than the more inclusive 'Our values'. Absent in this account are events and processes that destabilize the national self-image of British decency, including a number of different international contexts in which "the British state and elements of identifiably British populations have been involved directly and indirectly in genocide" (Shaw, 2011(Shaw, , 2417. The British 'proud tradition of taking in refugees', ritually invoked by politicians like Cameron, is in fact "a myth.…”

Debt as Power

“…The moral or ethical landscape, albeit slowly and never entirely, was also transforming, making it more difficult to rule by brute force alone. Still, counter-revolutionary assassinations and violence of unimaginable proportions were inflicted upon independence leaders, social activists, and revolutionary movements in the hope of maintaining a world order for capitalist power that had been forged for centuries (Marcuse 1972;Blum 2004;Prashad 2007;Shaw 2011). According to Stavrianos, the shift toward decolonization after the Second World War "did not signify that independent status was granted gratuitously or indiscriminately" (1981: 665).…”

Beyond the ‘RtoP’: Responsibility as doing, being and sharing

“…Germany's shouldering of responsibilities is placed in the perspective of multilateralism and institutional memberships, and Dobson demonstrates how Japan has used the G8 to become accepted as a responsible member of international society (Berenskoetter and Giegerich, 2010). Shaw (2011) refutes the idea of collective guilt for past state actions and argues that Great Britain, despite its relative decline, still upholds special responsibilities by virtue of being able to make its voice heard as a result of its membership in different international organizations and through the global media and the NGO community. Great Britain is hereby constructed as an exceptional state, similar to the United States.…”