Book discussion
Why Autocrats Kill: Elite Rivalry, Mass Killing and Genocide in Authoritarian Regimes
- Date
- Thursday 15 May 2025
- Time
- Location
-
Wijnhaven
Turfmarkt 99
2511 DP The Hague - Room
- 3.48
About the lecture
Why does genocide occur? Why do authoritarian leaders engage in mass killing? Dr. Eelco van der Maat offers a new paradigm for our understanding of mass killing, atrocities, and genocide. He explains how mass killing is not merely ideological, but often a rational response to elite rivalry within authoritarian regimes.
About Eelco van der Maat
Eelco van der Maat is Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Leiden Institute for History and is a specialize of authoritarian politics and political violence. His research explores the relationship between elite competition in authoritarian regimes and mass political violence against outgroups.
His research has appeared in journals such as International Organization, the Journal of Peace Research, and the Journal of Genocide Research. His recent book Elite Rivalry, Mass Killing and Genocide in Authoritarian Regimes: Why Autocrats Kill provides a novel argument for why states kill their populations based on elite rivalry in authoritarian regimes.
About the discussants
Dr. Lidewyde Berckmoes
As associate professor and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden, Lidewyde Berckmoes investigates long-term and cyclical dynamics of conflict and peace in the Great Lakes Region, particularly Burundi and Rwanda.
Trained as a cultural anthropologist, Lidewyde uses ethnographic research in collaboration with migration studies scholars, psychologists and psychiatrists to come to new insights about the long-term and intergenerational effects of conflict on children, young people and families. She recently published a photo ethnography entitled TRACES with photographer Marieke Maagdenberg. The book reveals conflict-affected cultural repertoires to show how the history of war in Burundi affects second-generation migrants in Europe. She is currently the principal investigator of two projects, one in Rwanda looking into intergenerational resilience and anticipatory practices in conflict and natural disaster, and the other exploring entanglements of cyclical conflict and mental health in Burundi. Lidewyde is also the convenor of the ASCL Collaborative Research Group (CRG) Conflict continuities.
Dr. Corinna Jentzsch
Corinna Jentzsch is an Assistant Professor (with tenure) of International Relations at the Institute of Political Science at Leiden University. Her research focuses on civilian collective action during civil war and conflict transformation and escalation. She is also broadly interested in social movements, political violence, peacekeeping, African politics, and fieldwork methods and ethics. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in southern Africa, including Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi.
Her recent book Violent Resistance: Militia Formation and Civil War in Mozambique (Cambridge University Press, 2022) examines how and why community-based militias form and spread. Her work has also appeared in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Political Geography, Civil Wars, Africa, ForeignAffairs.com, African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review, and several edited volumes.
She received her PhD from Yale University, and prior to that studied at Free University Berlin and Sciences Po Paris. She is an associate editor of the International Studies Review.
Join the event
All staff and students are welcome to join this event, especially those interested in genocide, mass killing, political violence, and authoritarian politics. You don't need to sign up, but you do need your LU-card to enter the building.