Lecture From Ukraine to Gaza: Genocide or Genocidal Warfare?

 The legal and public debate about the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have centered on whether they are examples of warfare or genocide — as distinct categories. This paper charts the origins and effect of this misleading distinction. It demonstrates that the inventor of the genocide concept, Raphael Lemkin, originally conceived of it as a synonym for “wars of extermination” — genocidal warfare — but that the states of the United Nations distinguished war and genocide for their own purposes when negotiating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1947 and 1948. The paper concludes with the debate at the International Court fo Justice, where attempts are being made to revive the notion of genocidal warfare. 

In dialogo con: Prof. Simon Levis Sullam, Ca’ Foscari, Venezia