Establishing American Leadership in Genocide Prevention, Part II: Policy Recommendations

by Michelle . · 2008-12-09 18:14:00 UTC
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As is written in the report of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, released yesterday, "Nothing is more central to preventing genocide than leadership." Indeed, the lack of sustained, high-level leadership combined with the absence of genocide prevention in the mainstream U.S. foreign policy framework continually result in ad hoc and wholly insufficient American response to cases of genocide and mass atrocity.

The report, accordingly, provides specific policy recommendations to fix (or move towards fixing) both pieces of this puzzle--leadership is needed to prioritize and mainstream genocide prevention, and an integrated and established genocide prevention policy is necessary to sustain high-level leadership within the American government.

Among its many recommendations, the report asks the next president to:

  • "set the tone" by identifying genocide prevention as a policy priority;

  • issue a presidential directive to initiate an interagency policy and operational guidance formation process;

  • create an interagency Atrocities Prevention Committee (APC) to monitor and analyze situations of concern, develop prevention and response plans, and facilitate the coordination of various government agencies (NSC, State, USAID, Defense, etc) in the implementation of such plans;

  • and launch a new diplomatic initiative, with a heavy investment of personal diplomacy and engagement, to promote increased international cooperation to achieve genocide prevention goals.

The report provides far greater detail on these and many other policy recommendations, but the basis is the need for an integrated policy on genocide prevention created and supported by the leadership of the president. As I wrote yesterday, the report provides actionable policy items that stand a real chance of changing how the world response to genocide and mass atrocity, and Obama should implement the recommendations post haste.

Click here to vote for the implementation of the Task Force's recommendations in Change.org's Ideas for Changing America competition/campaign.

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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