Book Launch: 'Ideology and Mass Killing' with Dr. Jonathan Leader Maynard

*This is an in-person book launch event co-organised with the Department of Political Economy, King’s College London. Please RSVP to this event here. 

 

About the event:

In research on ‘mass killings’ such as genocides and campaigns of state terror, the role of ideology is hotly debated. For some scholars, ideologies are crucial in providing the extremist goals and hatreds that motivate ideologically committed people to kill. But many other scholars are sceptical: contending that perpetrators of mass killing rarely seem ideologically committed, and that rational self-interest or powerful forms of social pressure are more important drivers of violence than ideology. In Ideology and Mass Killing, Jonathan Leader Maynard challenges both these prevailing views, advancing an alternative ‘neo-ideological’ perspective which systematically retheorises the key ideological foundations of large-scale violence against civilians. This event celebrates the launch of Ideology of Mass Killing, published by Oxford University Press in June 2022, with contributions from Dr Jonathan Leader Maynard, Professor Elizabeth Frazer, Dr Kieron Mitton and Dr H. Zeynep Bulutgil. Signed copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event.

 

Location:

Anatomy Lecture Theatre, Strand Campus, King’s College London. RSVP here.

 

About the panelists:

 

Jonathan Leader Maynard is a Lecturer in International Politics in the Department of Political Economy at King’s College London. His core research focuses on the role of ideology in political violence, mass atrocities and armed conflict, as well as broader dynamics of ideological extremism. He has secondary research interests in international political theory and international ethics, and in methodological debates in political science and political theory. Besides his first book, Ideology and Mass Killing, he has published in scholarly journals including the Journal of Peace Research, Ethics, the British Journal of Political Science, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Genocide Studies and Prevention.

Elizabeth Frazer (Chair)

Elizabeth Frazer is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations, and Emeritus Fellow of New College, at the University of Oxford. She has published widely on topics within political theory including democratic theory, political thought, gender, feminism, education, and political violence. Her authored books include Shakespeare and the Political Way; Violence and Political Theory and Can Political Violence Ever Be Justified (both with Kimberly Hutchings); The Problems of Communitarian Politics: Unity and Conflict; and The Politics of Community: a Feminist Critique of the Liberal Communitarian Debate (with Nicola Lacey). She is a former Chair of the Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought.

Kieran Mitton (Discussant)

Kieran Mitton is a Reader in Conflict, Security and Development in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. His research draws on extended fieldwork and perpetrator interviews to explore questions around violence and insecurity in contexts of war and peace, with a particular focus on the role of emotions and psychology at individual and group level. He is the author of Rebels in a Rotten State: Understanding Atrocity in the Sierra Leone Civil War (Hurst, 2015).

Zeynep Bulutgil (Discussant)

H. Zeynep Bulutgil is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at University College London. Her first book, The Roots of Ethnic Cleansing in Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2016; 2018) explored the conditions that lead to (or prevent) ethnic cleansing and was the Winner of the 2017 Best Book Award in the European Politics and Society Section of APSA. Her second book, The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization (Oxford University Press, 2022), studied the conditions under which the institutional structures of countries become separated from religious actors and regulations. Dr. Bulutgil was the recipient of the 2019-2020 British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship. She is also an Associate Editor at Nationalities Papers.