Publication Date

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Committee Members

Liam Anderson, Ph.D. (Advisor); Vaughn Shannon, Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carlos Costa, Ph.D. (Committee Member)

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Abstract

In 1948, the international community came together and promised to “prevent and punish” genocides under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention). Despite the Genocide Convention’s commitment to humanitarian intervention, states are selective and inconsistent in intervention. While there are many case studies done on state motivation for intervention, statistical studies are rarely done and a system for predicting what variables will likely produce humanitarian intervention on a wide scale has not been explored. This study uses a Cross-Sectional Time Series Estimator Model to track whether states were more likely to intervene in genocides over time since signing the Genocide Convention. It also tested whether valuable goods and shared borders made states more prone to intervention. The results concluded that the Genocide Convention has no correlation to states willingness to intervene in genocides. It also did not provide evidence that valuable goods are a factor in humanitarian intervention. The test did support the hypothesis that shared borders make states more likely to intervene in genocides. Future studies should focus on increasing the data pool to include more genocides and testing more variables in hopes of creating a system to predict humanitarian intervention in genocides.

Page Count

70

Department or Program

Department of Political Science

Year Degree Awarded

2024


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