Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
Review
"With great skill the different factors contributing to the holocaust [in Rwanda] are sorted out, cultural,
structural and the more personal and situational, including the role of Western development agencies in fortifying
the entrenched structural violence brought out by colonialism."
--Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies and Director, TRANSCEND
Kumarian Press, Inc. Web Site, October, 2000
Summary
This book explores the contradiction of massive genocide in a country considered by Western aid agencies to
be a model of development. Focusing on the 1990s and the dynamics of militarization and polarization that led to
genocide, the author studies how aid enterprises reacted, or failed to react, to those dynamics. Uvin goes on to
discuss the profound structural basis upon which the genocidal edifice was built.
Table of Contents
Illustrations
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Background
1 Rwanda before Independence: A Contested History
2 After Independence: Strategies for Elite Consolidation
-- Development as Legitimization
-- The Ideology of the Social Revolution
-- The Roots of Prejudice
-- The Institutionalized Structure of Prejudice
3 The Image of Rwanda in the Development Community
--The Importance of Development Aid in Rwanda
--The image: Development against the Odds
--The Data
--From Development to Relief: Explaining the Transition
Part II. Crisis, Elite Manipulation, and Violence in the 1990s
4 Political and Economic Crises and the Radicalization of Society
--Economic Crises
--Political Crises
--From Elite Fear to the Incitation of Genocide
--Beyond the Standard Explanation
5 Under the Volcano: The Development Community in the 1990s
--On Knowledge and Ignorance
--The 1990s Development Community
--The Broader Picture
Part III. The Condition of Structural Violence
6 From Structural to Acute Violence
--Poverty and Inequality
--The Forces of Exclusion
--Prejudice and Humiliation
--From Structural Violence to Genocide
7 Aid and Structural Violence
--The Impact of Development Aid on Structural Violence
--Why the Blindness?
Part IV. Two Issues: The Role of Civil Society and Ecological Resource Scarcity
8 And Where Was Civil Society?
--Overview of the Associative Sector in Rwanda
--The Puzzle of Civil Society in Rwanda
--Civil Society: Quantity versus Quality
--On the Democratizing Impact of Civil Society
9 The Role of Ecological Resources Scarcity
--Rwanda�s Ecology: An Overview
--Ecological Resource Scarcity: Challenges and Responses
--Genocide and Ecological Resource Scarcity
Part V. Conclusions
10 Why Did People Participate in Genocide? A Theoretically Informed Synthesis
--Political Science and Sociological Explanations
--Psychological Explanations
--Additional Factors of Importance
11 Development Aid: Conclusions and Paths for Reflection
--The Dual Role of Aid
--The Politics of Development Interventions
--Democratization and Civil Society
--Aid and Political Conditionality
