In Memoriam: Eric Markusen (8 October 1946 – 29 January 2007)

Genocide studies is today a growing, international and interdisciplinary field of studies, and Eric Markusen pointed out this development in lectures in numerous countries all over the world. Moreover, he contributed to this development both as a scholar, as a teacher and as an activist. On 29 January 2007, Eric Markusen – one of the pioneers of genocide studies and a dear colleague and friend to many in the field – died after short illness in Marshall, Minnesota.

Eric Markusen came to genocide studies in the 1980s. As he described in greater detail in his entry “Path to Genocide Studies” in Pioneers of Genocide Studies, he had started researching the probable effects of nuclear war before turning to the Holocaust and, short time later, towards the subject of genocide (1). Inspired by the work of Robert Jay Lifton and Robert Fulton, Markusen began analyzing the concept of genocidal mentality and the relationship between modern war and genocide which led to several publications (2). Later, his interest turned to the work of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as he was deeply convinced that genocide scholars could benefit from analyzing the proceedings of the ICTY and similar courts and should stop simply repeating long-standing criticism about the legal definition of genocide as set forth in the UN Genocide Convention. At the same time, Markusen invited legal scholars to engage with the findings of genocide scholars in order to learn more about the crime they were grappling with (3). 

Beginning in the 1990s, Eric Markusen undertook numerous travels to all parts of what then was Yugoslavia. Amongst others, he visited Pale, the capital of the Bosnian Serbs, where he interviewed close aides to Radovan Karadzic, and later Sarajevo – using the by now legendary tunnel to reach the town which was under siege by Bosnian Serb troops. These visits to the sites of genocidal violence were of great importance to him. As a matter of fact, Markusen traveled as late as December 2006 a last time to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in order to meet with EU and AU officials working to solve the Darfur crisis. He always wanted to see the actual site and, more importantly, visit and listen to the people affected by the atrocities and those trying to help them. This gave him a special credibility in the eyes of many people in Rwanda, Bosnia and elsewhere – he was a friend and somebody who really cared. 

Having focused in his research on Bosnia and Rwanda for the past ten years, Eric Markusen turned in 2004 his attention to Darfur. In the summer of 2004, he became a member of the Atrocities Documentation Team (ADT) which was sent by the US State Department to Chad in order to interview Darfuri refugees about their plight and to establish whether genocide was being committed. This mission had a great impact on him. He felt hopeful that genocide scholars could possibly make a difference, and he was very positive when then Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2004, on the basis of the ADT study, concluded that genocide was being committed. As many others, Markusen was certain that this meant that the United States and the international community would act to stop the killings in Darfur. His great disappointment with the subsequent lack of action led him to focus his energy even more on Darfur. Markusen taught university courses covering Darfur (4), wrote articles, spoke at rallies, engaged with the media and co-edited a special issue of Genocide Studies and Prevention and a book on Darfur. In fact, he had concrete plans to return to the region and meet Darfuri people to learn more about their situation. Others will have to continue this work. 

For Eric Markusen activism formed always an integral part of genocide studies. For him, genocide could not be studied from an ivory tower, without getting out into the field and speaking to the victims and studying the perpetrators. Equally, according to Markusen, a genocide scholar also had a responsibility to fight against genocide and engage in genocide prevention. He worked in this area in different capacities, but possibly most important to him was his role in co-organizing the fourth Stockholm International Forum titled ‘Preventing Genocide, Threats and Responsibilities’ in 2004 (5). Despite the seemingly never-ending list of new instances of genocidal violence, he believed that bringing people together could help the cause of prevention. 

His bringing of people together was something that was particularly unique and special about Eric. First as research director of the Danish Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, and later, after its merger into the Danish Institute for International Studies, as senior researcher, he traveled to numerous countries, including Sweden, Norway, Germany, Holland, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, South Korea, Japan and Argentina. In all these places, he gave lectures about genocide, helped to organize conferences and met with other researchers and students interested in genocide in order to build a network of genocide scholars – and he succeeded in doing so. As part of his continuing effort to bring researchers and students of genocide together, Eric Markusen co-founded the Nordic network of genocide scholars which is comprised of genocide researchers from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland. Ultimately, it remained his ardent hope that genocide scholars from all over the world would meet and cooperate and not be split by organizational issues. 

By any measure, to network and to connect people were two of Eric Markusen’s greatest gifts. Gentle and decent, always ready to listen and equipped with a great enthusiasm for the subject of studying genocide, he made countless contacts and friends in the field. Whenever he returned from a travel, he would spend the first day writing to the people he had met, establishing a contact that would last. Indeed, writing or speaking on the phone to friends and colleagues, but also to students or even people he did not know – who contacted him as one of the leading experts in the field – was something that meant a lot to him. And many in genocide studies miss now his mails and his phone calls. 

In all his work, despite of the gloominess of the subject, Eric Markusen always remained a kind and caring colleague and mentor. He was a great listener and his office door literally always stood open for colleagues and also students. No request for help, no last moment inquiry about a letter of recommendation was turned down. With great generosity, Markusen shared his knowledge, time and immense network of contacts with others, no matter whether they were established scholars or newcomers. Teaching about genocide had always been particularly important to him and he shared his expertise in the classroom in the United States, Canada and Denmark. Markusen hoped to increase the level of awareness and to create a new generation of genocide scholars – and the many graduate students around the world that had him as a teacher can account for the fact that he succeeded in doing that. 

Those who heard his aforementioned lecture on the emerging, international and interdisciplinary field of genocide studies will remember that Eric Markusen - in the modesty that was so typical of him - never mentioned or even alluded to the great contribution he himself made to this development. But the annals of genocide studies provide a clear picture of this fact: Eric Markusen made a lasting impression on the field of genocide studies and many of its members. He will be missed dearly. 

Martin Mennecke

Copenhagen, 28 February 2007

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1. Eric Markusen, Path to Genocide Studies, in: Steve L. Jacobs and Samuel Totten (eds.), Pioneers of Genocide Studies, Transaction, 2002, 295-311. 

2. Eric Markusen and David Kopf, The Holocaust and Strategic Bombing. Genocide and Total War in the Twentieth Century, Westview Press, 1990. 

3. See for example, Eric Markusen, The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the Crime of Genocide, in: Steven L. B. Jensen (ed.), Genocide: Cases, Comparisons and Contemporary Debates, 2003, 293-359 (with Martin Mennecke). 

4. Cf. only Samuel Totten and Eric Markusen, Genocide in Darfur – Investigating the Atrocities in the Sudan, Routledge, 2006. 

5. http://www.manskligarattigheter.gov.se/stockholmforum/2004/conference_2004.html