Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia

by Edward Kissi

Overview

Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia is the first comparative study of the Ethiopian and Cambodian revolutions of the early 1970s. One of the few comparative studies of genocide in the developing world, this book presents some of the key arguments in traditional genocide scholarship, but the book's author, Edward Kissi, takes a different position, arguing that the Cambodian genocide and the atrocious crimes in Ethiopia had very different motives. Kissi's findings reveal that genocide was a tactic specifically chosen by Cambodia's Khmer Rouge to intentionally and systematically annihilate certain ethnic and religious groups, whereas Ethiopia's Dergue resorted to terror and political killing in the effort to retain power. Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia demonstrates that the extent to which revolutionary states turn to policies of genocide depends greatly on how they acquire their power and what domestic and international opposition they face. This is an important and intriguing book for students of African and Asian history and those interested in the study of genocide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739106914
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	03/20/2006
Pages:	158
Product dimensions:	6.38(w) x 9.38(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Edward Kissi is assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Society and State in pre-revolutionary Ethiopia and Cambodia Chapter 3 Growth and Dissemination of Revolutionary Ideas Chapter 4 Empire and Kingdom in Revolution Chapter 5 State-terror and the Quest for Total Power Chapter 6 Determining and Prosecuting Genocide Chapter 7 Foreign Relations and Territorial Politics Chapter 8 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Kissi has produced a provocative and engaging comparative masterpiece that genocide scholars as well as historians of Ethiopia and Cambodia will find informative and fascinating....Kissi deserves commendation for augmenting the Ethiopian side with oral interviews and newspaper accounts.

September 2008 African Studies Review

Edward Kissi's pioneering comparison of the Cambodian and Ethiopian revolutions makes an important contribution to the study of modern genocide as well as to that of comparative Third World politics. It is a close, careful, scholarly assessment of contemporaneous disasters in two kingdoms on different continents, and reveals interesting commonalities and differences in their societies and the regimes that almost destroyed them, the Khmer Rouge and the Dergue.

Ben Kiernan

Edward Kissi's analytically stimulating Revolution and Genocide in Ethiopia and Cambodia is a fruitful comparative study probing deeply beneath surface appearances to shed new light on key differences between the revolutions in Cambodia and Ethiopia and their atrocious consequences. After reading his nuanced comparisons, no reader will ever again be satisfied with glib generalizations about the similarities between the revolutionary regimes of Pol Pot and Mengistu.

Prof. Frank Chalk

Kissi has produced a provocative and engaging comparative masterpiece that genocide scholars as well as historians of Ethiopia and Cambodia will find informative and fascinating....Kissi deserves commendation for augmenting the Ethiopian side with oral interviews and newspaper accounts.

African Studies Review