Research Proposal

I have decided to focus my research project on the recent genocides in Africa (Sudan/Rwanda; perhaps others if large-scale genocide I am not familiar with becomes a factor after research) and the international community’s role in them. I would like to focus most on why armed intervention did not take place and the reasons for this in the United Nations. I would also like to examine the consequences of inaction and the process by which the international community is supposed to respond to genocide.

As I currently envision it, the project can be broken into a few distinct parts. 1) A brief history of what happened during the Rwanda and Sudan and possibly other genocides, 2) the response in the UN and militarily powerful countries that might have acted independently, 3) the difference in response when ethnic cleansing took place in Bosnia, 4) positives and negatives of armed response and intervention in genocide, and 5) examination of and possible improvements to the process by which the UN and international alliances decide whether or not to intervene. I would like to focus primarily on 4 and 5, as the first three parts currently seem like background research that has been very well covered elsewhere.