Genocide was generally seen as an extremely rare exception or aberration in human affairs. Today, such minimalist views about genocide seem increasingly dated. The International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda have convicted Serb and Hutu extremists for genocide against Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) and Tutsi victims. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has likewise ruled that the Serb massacre of over 8,000 Bosniaks at Srebrenica in July 1995 was an act of genocide. A generation of new scholars has arisen who have pointed out the high incidence of genocide in human history, using Bosnia and Rwanda as case studies to illustrate the wider phenomenon. Genocide has widely come to be seen as something that has occurred frequently, not rarely, in human history, and with this changing perception has come an increasing awareness of the need to take action to prevent it. Yet precisely because the recognition of genocides leads to dem...