"Genocide, The Great Irresponsibles, and the Grand Illusion of Humanity": A Faculty Inaugural Lecture by Prof. Adrian Gallagher

Join us for the sixth lecture in the Faculty of Social Sciences Inaugural Lecture Series!

We are delighted to announce that the sixth lecture in the 2024-25 Faculty of Social Sciences Lecture Series will be delivered by Professor Adrian Gallagher from the School of Politics and International Studies. 

Professor Gallagher's research focuses on mass atrocity prevention (genocides, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes) under the Responsibility to Protect. He works at the interface of International Relations Theory, Security Studies, and Genocide Studies. He recently finished a large project looking at armed groups and mass atrocities and going forward, he is writing a monograph on mass atrocity prevention in the Central African Republic. 

The Lecture

Genocide, The Great Irresponsibles and the Grand Illusion of Humanity?

Abstract

What is the relationship between genocide, international order, and humanity? At the end of World War II, the so-called liberal international order was created with the United Nations and the Security Council at its core. At the same time, the Nuremburg Trials gave rise to the idea that the Holocaust as it would come to be known, was a crime against humanity and in 1946 the United Nations adopted a Resolution on the Crime of Genocide claiming that it ‘shocks the conscious of [hu]mankind’ and results in ‘great losses to humanity’. By 1948 the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide began to reflect an understanding of genocide as the ‘crime of crimes’ from a legal and moral perspective, however, genocide prevention remained a low level political priority. Whilst much ink has been spilt over the lack of political will, academics have neglected, and policymakers misunderstood, the impact that genocide has on international order itself (as now witnessed in relation to Gaza). This came to the fore in the post-Cold War era as the Rwandan genocide eroded the authority of the UN, the UNSC and certain Member States to the point that the UN/UNSC’s authority could be challenged over Kosovo (1999) and Iraq (2003). In 2005, the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) agreement provided political leaders with an opportunity to address the threat posed to humanity from mass atrocity crimes. Twenty years on, the behaviour of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (US, UK, France, Russia and China) in relation to Gaza, Ukraine, and Xinjiang raises an urgent need to analyse the impact of genocide on international order as these ‘great irresponsibles’ (Bull 1981) may be forfeiting their claim to act as the great power management mechanism at the heart of international society. Going forward, as part of broader debates over the future of international relations, we need to consider whether any variation of a new world order can fulfil the legal and moral obligation to prevent crimes against humanity (in the philosophical sense). Notably, this comes at a time when there are proposals to create new legal mechanisms such as the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crimes Against Humanity. Problematically, unless such legal developments change the nature of politics in the anarchical realm we may have to face a tragic reality: the grand illusion of humanity in a world of states.

We would like to welcome everyone – be they colleagues, postgraduate researchers, students, alumni or visitors – to this lecture celebrating the achievement and research contributions of Professor Gallagher.

The lecture will take place on Wednesday 19 February 2025 at 16:00 in Liberty Building LT (LG.06) on the Western University of Leeds campus. The lecture will take place from 16:00-17:00 including introductions and a Q&A session. After the lecture, there will be a drinks reception.

To register your attendance at this lecture, please complete this short registration form.

If you have any queries about this lecture, or about the series, please direct them via email to Izzy Jenkinson (Faculty Events Coordinator) at I.K.S.Jenkinson@leeds.ac.uk.