Making and Unmaking Nations

Scott Straus, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  His latest book is “Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa.”  At this moment the word genocide is being used in context with the Rohinga in Myanamar, the Yazidis in Iraq. It represents that ultimate failure of politics, as Scott Straus says in his new book, “Making and Unmaking Nations.”  His book is not merely a study of genocide, but a cautionary tale. Genocide need not be the inevitable outcome of war, hate and greed, he argues. Ideas matter immensely – particularly the ideas espoused by the founding leaders of a nation. Does this “founding narrative” focus on dialogue and inclusion? Or is it rooted in the superiority of one group over another?  That founding narrative, says Straus, is what made the difference between a nation like Rwanda where some 800,000 Tutsis were killed because of their ethnicity and Cote d’Ivoire, Mali or Senegal – all of which stepped to the brink of genocide, but then stepped back.