Benjamin Valentino

Benjamin Andrew Valentino (born 1971)[1] is a political scientist and professor at Dartmouth College.[2] His 2004 book Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century, adapted from his PhD thesis and published by Cornell University Press, has been reviewed in several academic journals.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9]

Analysis of genocide and mass killing

Valentino defines mass killing as "the intentional killing of a massive number of noncombatants", where a "massive number" is defined as at least 50,000 intentional deaths over the course of five years or less.[10] This is the most accepted quantitative minimum threshold for the term.[11][12] Valentino applies this definition to the cases of Joseph Stalin's Soviet Union, Communist China under Mao Zedong and Democratic Kampuchea under the Khmer Rouge while stating that "mass killings on a smaller scale" also appear to have been carried out by regimes in eastern Europe, North Korea, Vietnam and in the Third World.[13] Alongside Valentino, Jay Ulfelder uses a threshold of 1,000 killed.[14] Atsushi Tago and Frank Wayman reference the concept of mass killing from Valentino and argue that even with a lower threshold (10,000 killed per year, 1,000 killed per year, or even 1 killed per year), "autocratic regimes, especially communist, are prone to mass killing generically, but not so strongly inclined (i.e. not statistically significantly inclined) toward geno-politicide."[11]

In Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century, Valentino sees ruler's motives as the key factor explaining the onset of genocide.[15] Valentino outlines two major category of mass killings, namely dispossessive mass killings and coercive mass killings.[16] The first category includes ethnic cleansing, killings that accompany agrarian reforms in some Communist states and killings during colonial expansion, among others. The second category includes killings during counter-guerilla warfare and killings as part of the Axis imperialist conquests during the World War II, among others. Although he does not consider ideology or regime type as an important factor that explains these killings,[17] Valentino outlines Communist mass killing as a subtype of dispossessive mass killing which is considered as a complication of original theory his book is based on.[11]

In explaining why ideology alone, or "positive support", is not the cause of mass killing, Valentino quotes Edmund Burke's maxim that "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" and writes "mass killing often seems to require little more than what might be called 'negative support'—the inability of victims to escape or defend themselves, the absence of organized domestic or international perpetrators, and the lack of public willingness to take personal risks on behalf on others." Hence, according to Valentino, discrimination, hatred and negative stereotypes directed at social groups "may not be enough on their own to provoke support for extermination, but widespread attitudes of this king may be sufficient to block effective opposition to it." In this sense, Valentino quotes Vladimir Brovkin as saying "a vote for the Bolsheviks in 1917 was not a vote for Red Terror or even a vote for dictatorship of the proletariat." Similarly, according to Valentino, most scholars do not attribute the Nazis' electoral success to "the appeal of radical anti-Semitic ideas, let alone support for the extermination of the Jews", while noting the Nazi regime and Adolf Hitler in particular "remained broadly popular even as increasingly radical anti-Semitic measures were enacted."[18] In regard to Communist mass killing, Valentino explains that mass killing is not caused by communist ideology but that it occurs when power is in the hands of one person or a small number of people and there is a "revolutionary desire to bring about the rapid and radical transformation of society."[19]

In a review of second-generation comparative research on genocide, Scott Straus writes that "Valentino identifies two major types, each with three subtypes. The first major type is 'dispossessive mass killing,' which includes (1) 'communist mass killings' in which leaders seek to transform societies according to communist principles; (2) 'ethnic mass killings,' in which leaders forcibly remove an ethnic population; and (3) mass killing as leaders acquire and repopulate land. The second major type of mass killing is 'coercive mass killing,' which includes (1) killing in wars when leaders cannot defeat opponents using conventional means; (2) 'terrorist' mass killing when leaders use violence to force an opposing side to surrender; and (3) killing during the creation of empires when conquering leaders try to defeat resistance and intimidate future resistance."[20]

Communist mass killing

Valentino states that mass killings in the Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and Democratic Kampuchea alone ranged from a low of 21 million to a high of 70 million.[21][22] Citing Rudolph Rummel and others, Valentino stated that the "highest end of the plausible range of deaths attributed to communist regimes" was "up to 110 million."[23] Valentino writes that mass killings in these communist regimes were the results of their radical social transformations which economically dispossed a large number of people, arguing: "Social transformations of this speed and magnitude have been associated with mass killing for two primary reasons. First, the massive social dislocations produced by such changes have often led to economic collapse, epidemics, and, most important, widespread famines. [...] The second reason that communist regimes bent on the radical transformation of society have been linked to mass killing is that the revolutionary changes they have pursued have clashed inexorably with the fundamental interests of large segments of their populations. Few people have proved willing to accept such far-reaching sacrifices without intense levels of coercion."[24] Valentino further writes:

Communism has a bloody record, but most regimes that have described themselves as communist or have been described as such by others have not engaged in mass killing. In addition to shedding light on why some communist states have been among the most violent regimes in history, therefore, I also seek to explain why other communist countries have avoided this level of violence. [...] I argue that radical communist regimes have proven such prodigious killers primarily because the social change they sought to bring about have resulted in the sudden and nearly complete material and political dispossession of millions of people. These regimes practiced social engineering of the highest order. It is the revolutionary desire to bring about the rapid and radical transformation of society that distinguishes radical communist regimes from all other forms of government, including less violent communist regimes and noncommunist, authoritarian governments.[19]

According to Valentino, there may also have been other mass killings (on a smaller scale than his standard of 50,000 killed within five years) in Communist states such as Bulgaria, East Germany and Romania, although lack of documentation prevents definitive judgement about the scale of these events and the motives of the perpetrators.[21] Valentino states that most regimes that described themselves as Communist did not commit mass killings.[13] Valentino claims that the Great Leap Forward was a cause of the Great Chinese Famine and the worst effects of the famine were steered towards the regime's enemies. Those who were labeled "black elements" (religious leaders, rightists and rich peasants) in earlier campaigns died in the greatest numbers because they were given the lowest priority in the allocation of food.[25] Valentino writes that "[a]lthough not all the deaths due to famine in these cases were intentional, communist leaders directed the worst effects of famine against their suspected enemies and used hunger as a weapon to force millions of people to conform to the directives of the state."[26]

People's Republic of Bulgaria

According to Valentino, available evidence suggests that between 50,000 and 100,000 people may have been killed in Bulgaria beginning in 1944 as part of agricultural collectivization and political repression, although there is insufficient documentation to make a definitive judgement.[21]

Cuba

According to Valentino and Jay Ulfelder, Fidel Castro's government of Cuba killed between 5,000 and 8,335 noncombatants as part of political repression between 1959 and 1970.[27]

East Germany

According to Valentino, between 80,000 and 100,000 people may have been killed in East Germany beginning in 1945 as part of the Soviet Union's de-Nazification campaign.[21] Other scholars argue that these figures are inflated.[28][29]

Democratic Republic of Korea

According to Valentino, between 400,000 and 1,500,000 may have been killed in North Korea beginning in 1945 as part of the agricultural collectivization and political repression.[21]

Socialist Republic of Romania

According to Valentino, between 60,000 and 300,000 people may have been killed in Romania beginning in 1945 as part of agricultural collectivization and political repression.[21]

Vietnam

Valentino attributes 80,000–200,000 deaths to Communist mass killing in both North Vietnam and South Vietnam.[21]

Counter-guerrilla mass killing

Valentino attributes between 950,000 and 1,280,000 civilian deaths to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and occupation of the country between 1978 and 1989, primarily as counter-guerrilla mass killing.[30] According to Valentino, approximately one-third of Afghanistan's population had fled the country by the early 1990s.[31] Valentino writes:

The pattern of Soviet military operations strongly suggests that population relocation was a significant part of Soviet counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. Although direct evidence of Soviet intentions is limited, most analysts and observers of the war have concluded that the Soviets adopted an intentional policy of attacking villages in areas of high guerrilla activity in the effort to force the population into flight. Free-fire zones were established in depopulated areas, permitting Soviet troops to shoot anything that moved. In addition to killing tens of thousands in attacks on villages, this policy eventually produced one of the most massive refugee movements in modern history. Approximately 5 million people out of a total prewar population of between 15.5 and 17 million had fled the country by the early 1990s, the great majority across the border to Pakistan. Two million more were displaced within Afghanistan. Many refugees died during the difficult journey over mountain passes to Pakistan.[31]

Selected works
  • Valentino, Benjamin (2004). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-6717-2.
  • Valentino, Benjamin; Huth, Paul; Balch-Lindsay, Dylan (2004). "'Draining the Sea': Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare". International Organization. 58 (2): 375–407. doi:10.1017/S0020818304582061. ISSN 0020-8183. JSTOR 3877862.
  • Valentino, Benjamin; Huth, Paul; Croco, Sarah (2006). "Covenants without the Sword: International Law and the Protection of Civilians in Times of War". World Politics. 58 (3): 339–377. doi:10.1353/wp.2007.0004. ISSN 0043-8871. JSTOR 40060139. S2CID 153623647.
  • Valentino, Benjamin (2014). "Why We Kill: The Political Science of Political Violence against Civilians". Annual Review of Political Science. 17 (1): 89–103. doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-082112-141937.

References
  1. Valentino, Benjamin Andrew (2001). Final solutions: the causes of mass killing and genocide (PhD thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/8759.
  2. "Benjamin A. Valentino | Faculty Directory". faculty-directory.dartmouth.edu. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  3. The Virginia Quarterly Review Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century By Alexander, Gerard
  4. Christie, Kenneth (2005). "The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective, and: Final Solutions: Mass Killings and Genocide in the 20th Century (review)". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 19 (2): 317–321. doi:10.1093/hgs/dci034. ISSN 1476-7937.
  5. "Miller on Valentino, 'Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century' | H-Genocide | H-Net". networks.h-net.org.
  6. Chirot, Daniel (2005). "Book Review: Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century". Comparative Political Studies. 38 (5): 578–580. doi:10.1177/0010414004273858. S2CID 154671052.
  7. Christie, K. (2005). "The Specter of Genocide: Mass Murder in Historical Perspective, Robert Gellately and Ben Kiernan, eds. (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 406 pp., cloth $65.00, pbk. $22.99. * Final Solutions: Mass Killings and Genocide in the 20th Century, Benjamin A. Valentino (Ithaca, NY; London: Cornell University Press, 2004), 336 pp., $29.95". Holocaust and Genocide Studies. 19 (2): 317–321. doi:10.1093/hgs/dci034.
  8. Priselac, Jessica (2005). "Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the twentieth Century". SAIS Review of International Affairs. 25 (1): 207–209. doi:10.1353/sais.2005.0015. S2CID 154407248.
  9. Stanton, Gregory H. "Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century." The Wilson Quarterly, vol. 28, no. 4, 2004, p. 116+.
  10. Bach-Linsday, Dylan; Huth, Paul; Valentino, Benjamin. (2004). "Draining the Sea: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare". International Organization. Cambridge University Press. 58 (2): 375–407. doi:10.1017/S0020818304582061. ISSN 0020-8183. JSTOR 3877862.
  11. Atsushi, Tago; Wayman, Frank W. (January 2010). "Explaining the Onset of Mass Killing, 1949–87". Journal of Peace Research Online. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. 47 (1): 3–13. doi:10.1177/0022343309342944. JSTOR 25654524. S2CID 145155872.
  12. Esteban, Joan Maria; Morelli, Massimo; Rohner, Dominic (May 2010). "Strategic Mass Killings". Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich Working. Paper No. 486. Retrieved 14 November 2020 – via SSRN.
  13. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  14. Ulfelder, Jay; Valentino, Benjamin (February 2008). "Assessing Risks of State-Sponsored Mass Killing". Social Science Research Network. p. 2. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1703426.
  15. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 66. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2. "I content mass killing occurs when powerful groups come to believe it is the best available means to accomplish certain radical goals, counter specific types of threats, or solve difficult military problem."
  16. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  17. Scott Straus. Review: Second-Generation Comparative Research on Genocide. Reviewed Work(s): Genocide in the Age of the Nation State by Mark Levene; The Dark Sideof Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing by Michael Mann; The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century by Manus I. Midlarsky; Purifier et détruire: Usages politiques desmassacres et génocides by Jacques Sémelin; Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century by Benjamin A. Valentino; A Century of Genocide: Utopias of Raceand Nation by Eric D. Weitz. World Politics, Vol. 59, No. 3 (Apr., 2007), pp. 476-501. Published by: Cambridge University Press. Stable URL:
  18. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). "The Perpreators and the Public". Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 26–60. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2. Quotes at pp. 32–34. More throughout at pp. 32–37.
  19. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 91, 93. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  20. Straus, Scott (April 2007). "Review: Second-Generation Comparative Research on Genocide". World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 59 (3): 476–501. doi:10.1017/S004388710002089X. JSTOR 40060166. S2CID 144879341.
  21. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2. "Table 2: Communist Mass Killings in the Twentieth Century
    • Soviet Union (1917-23) ... 250,000-2,500,000
    • Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1927-45) ... 10,000,000-20,000,000
    • China (including Tibet) (1949-72) ... 10,000,000-46,000,000
    • Cambodia (1975-79) ... 1,000,000-2,000,000
    Possible cases:
    • Bulgaria (1944-?) ... 50,000-100,000
    • East Germany (1945-?) ... 80,000-100,000
    • Romania (1945-?) ... 60,000-300,000
    • North Korea (1945-?) ... 400,000-1,500,000
    • North and South Vietnam (1953-?) ... 80,000-200,000
    Note: All figures in this and subsequent tables are author's estimates based on numerous sources. Episodes are listed under the heading 'possible cases' in this and subsequent tables when the available evidence suggests a mass killing may have occurred, but documentation is insufficient to make a definitive judgement regarding the number of people killed, the intentionality of the killing, or the motives of the perpetrators."
  22. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2. "Communist regimes have been responsible for this century's most deadly episodes of mass killing. Estimates of the total number of people killed by communist regimes range as high as 110 million. In this chapter I focus primarily on mass killings in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia - history's most murderous communist states. Communist violence in these three states alone may account for between 21 million and 70 million deaths. Mass killings on a smaller scale also appear to have been carried out by communist regimes in North Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe, and Africa."
  23. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 275. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2. "Rudolph J. Rummel, Death by Government (New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 1994), p. 15. A team of six French historians coordinated by Stéphane Courtois estimates that communist regimes are responsible for between 85 and 100 million deaths. [...] Zbigniew Brzezinski estimates that 'the failed effort to build communism' cost the lives of almost sixty million people. [...] Matthew White estimates eighty-one million deaths from communist 'genocide and tyranny' and 'man-made famine.' [...] Todd Culbertson estimates that communist regimes killed 'perhaps 100 million' people. [...] These estimates should be considered at the highest end of the plausible range of deaths attributable to communist regimes."
  24. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  25. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 128. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  26. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. pp. 93–94. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  27. Ulfelder, Jay; Valentino, Benjamin (February 2008). "Assessing Risks of State-Sponsored Mass Killing". Social Science Research Network. p. ii. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1703426.
  28. Morré, Jörg (1997). "Sowjetische Internierungslager in der SBZ" ["Soviet Internment Camps in the Soviet Occupation Zone"]. In Morré, Jörg (ed.). Speziallager des NKWD: sowjetische Internierungslager in Brandenburg 1945–1950 (in German) ["Special Camp of the NKVD: Soviet Internment Camps in Brandenburg 1945–1950"]. Potsdam: Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung. p. 9.
  29. Plato, Alexander (1999). "Sowjetische Speziallager in Deutschland 1945 bis 1950: Ergebnisse eines deutsch-russischen Kooperationsprojektes" ["Soviet Special Camps in Germany 1945 to 1950: Results of a German-Russian Cooperation Project"]. In Reif-Spirek, Peter; Ritscher, Bodo (eds.). Speziallager in der SBZ. Gedenkstätten mit "doppelter Vergangenheit" (in German) ["Special Camp in the SBZ. Memorial Sites with 'a Double Past'"]. Berlin: Ch. Links Verlag. p. 141. ISBN 978-3-86153-193-7.
  30. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
  31. Valentino, Benjamin (2005). Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. p. 223. ISBN 978-0-801-47273-2.
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