The following article by Carola Lingaas is the latest in JiC’s ongoing symposium on Alette Smeulers’ new book “Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal?”. Carola is a full professor of law at VID Specialized University in Oslo (Norway). For all other submissions to the symposium, please see here.

Alette Smeulers and Nicola Quaedvlieg’s podcast ‘Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal?’ has utterly revolutionised my dog walks. From being rather uninspiring and duty-obligated routines, Mira is suddenly dragged onto hour-long walks that inspire and enrich her owner. Mira follows me reluctantly, signalling that she is ready to go home, while I stall until the respective podcast episode with fascinating conversations is finished. By now, Mira dreads the weekly release of a new episode. As an avid listener of the podcast, my expectations of Smeulers’ book, ‘Perpetrators of Mass Atrocities – Terribly and Terrifyingly Normal?’ were understandably high. 

The book is like a written version of the podcast. The chapters and their sections read almost like a podcast manuscript. You can nearly hear Smeulers enthusiastically discussing her decades-long research on perpetrators. Her passion and fascination for the topic are palpable throughout the book, which is probably her magnum opus. She has set a new standard on perpetrator research with an aim to “makes us better understand the causes of mass atrocities” (p. 427). 

The book provides insights into all the different aspects of perpetrators, ranging from the obvious criminological and legal sides of committing the most heinous crimes imaginable, to important historical, sociological, and psychological research that helps explain why ‘terribly and terrifyingly normal’ individuals can become perpetrators of mass violence. She shows some parallels between perpetrators from different conflicts and some not equally apparent commonalities (see e.g. pp. 27-33 or p. 40: “it is hard to find common denominators”). Nearly every chapter paints the answer to the question why everyone can become a perpetrator. Smeulers is convinced that “this is an important insight which we need to acknowledge in order to make this world a safer place” (p. 4). Given the current geopolitical earthquakes, nobody would deny that peace and safety are crucial values.

Smeulers’ research stands out in elegantly integrating inter- and multidisciplinary perspectives to explaining difficult phenomena. This ability is apparent in her newest book too. At the same time, she has seemingly created a new genre of academic publications. The book is stripped of heavy footnotes or in-text references and instead collects selected references as endnotes on nearly 100 pages. This stylistic and editorial choice might originate in Smeulers’ admission that “there was too much literature available” and that she “read until the point of saturation” (p. 435). This surprisingly honest admission has perhaps contributed to making the text much more reader- (or podcast) friendly, while losing some of the academic reliability and validity one might have expected in a book of this profile. 

The absence of thousands of footnotes and the (equally surprising) colloquial writing style certainly attracts a broader readership: it speaks to academics as well as anyone interested in mass atrocities, terrorism, wars, and conflicts. While this undoubtedly is a strength of the book, it is simultaneously also its downside. It is not always clear who the intended reader is. Is it an expert scholar in international crimes or is it a lay person? This ‘neither fish nor fowl’ dichotomy transplants throughout the book. For example: at times, conflicts that form the backdrop of severe international crimes that individual perpetrators have committed are only cursorily presented (e.g. the Serb-Croatian conflict on pp. 88-89 and 199; Israel-Palestine on p. 213), thus assuming that the reader has sufficient insight and understanding of highly complex historical and contemporary occurrences. 

Other times, there are so many details that the reader is lost as to how these connect to the overarching typology (e.g. 10-page case study on radical Islamism on pp. 52-62 or nearly 20 pages on radicalisation on pp. 180-197). Given that the examples span across conflicts as distinct as World War I and II, the Armenian and Rwandan genocide, the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, the 9/11 attacks, the invasion of Ukraine, and radical Islamic terrorism acts in Europe, it is arguably difficult to do justice to all. The perhaps overly ambitious selection of cases, including those that could be categorized as ordinary crimes, make it at times difficult to see how they fit into the book’s overarching ‘mass atrocities’ framework (e.g. sects or US white supremacism, pp. 158-161). 

Furthermore, in the presentation of different perpetrators and cases, there is often no clear distinction between genocide, mass atrocities, and other violence like terrorism or suicide bombings. This portrayal, however, blurs the fundamentally different dynamics and mechanisms that are at play, which mutually influence and affect groups and individual perpetrators. This omission is perhaps a result of the editorial dichotomy: it is good enough for a lay person but may lack nuance for scholars. 

The countless examples certainly home in on two aspects. First, there is brutality and disrespect for human life in every single conflict. Second, there are certain parallels across time and space. However, due to the wealth of details (or lack thereof), it is easy to lose sight of the book’s aim, namely understanding why individuals become perpetrators of mass atrocities and how the different types can be grouped. 

This leads to the book’s main innovation: the typology of 14 different perpetrator categories. History has demonstrated that the (rigid) classification of individuals into different groups comes with an inherent risk. Aware of this risk, Smeulers does not attempt to present isolated groups. She is clear that the categories intersect, are not mutually exclusive, and sometimes have fluid boundaries. Yet, the more fluid these boundaries become, the less useful a typology might appear. For instance, it remains unclear how the categories ‘Fanatics’ (pp. 42-65), ‘True Believers’ (pp. 149-169), and ‘Holy Warrior’ (pp. 170-197) differ, when they so obviously intersect: is it ideology, radicalisation, or terror? The categorisation, which transplants into the ‘Avenger’ category (especially on pp. 212 and 220-221), then appears artificial and confusing.

The fluidity of the typologies also connects to the crucial and regularly problematised aspect of intergroup dynamics, which are inherent to any conflict. The contextual settings enable the criminalisation of individuals. It might therefore have been more interesting to analyse how so-called othering processes that happen in between groups, affect and personally shape the individual perpetrator as a (real or perceived) member of a group. The book touches upon ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamics (e.g. on pp. 10, 16, 49, 87, 149, 191, 247) but often in the same breath as the perpetrator’s educational, family, marital status, or the respective country’s economic and political chaos. 

The book also moves between micro-, meso- or macro levels of armed conflicts and mass atrocities, discussing individuals, their surroundings, states, companies, and non-state actors. While these perspectives and levels are interesting and relevant, for analytical purposes, it would be more orderly to distinguish and acknowledge the different levels and treat them distinctly rather than blending them. For example, under the perpetrator category ‘Profiteer’, there is a subsection on the profitability of war, which includes discussions on the weapons industry and trade, mercenaries, private military companies, Blackwater, the Wagner Group, and the Auschwitz crematoria ovens. While each of these issues would merit a book of its own, they contribute to losing focus on the book’s aim and theme: individual perpetrators. 

Personally, and this is certainly a matter of taste, I would have preferred if the book had focused on a few core issues of direct relevance to the commission of mass atrocities – ideologies, grievance, power – rather than touching upon myriad matters such as nationalism, denunciation, mental disorders, gender roles, etc.

The book’s ambition is reflected in an enormous range of individual perpetrators: Adolf Eichmann, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Duch, Idi Amin, Kim Jong-un, Nicolae Ceausescu, Hosni Mubarak, Fidel Castro, etc. Here too, the dichotomy appears: while these men are all examples that help construct certain perpetrator typologies, there is too much (historical, contextual, personal, societal) variety and too few commonalities to help sketch clear and logical perpetrator typologies. 

With this book, Smeulers demonstrates her incredible wealth of knowledge that goes far beyond perpetrator studies. She has created an encyclopaedia on perpetrators of mass atrocities. The enthusiasm that characterises Smeulers as a person and a scholar is mirrored in her academic life and publications, and this book is no exception. It is the summary of a life’s work, fascination, and interest, which shines through in the odd in-text references to novels and movies. It is clear that Smeulers has put all her energy, passion, and soul into writing this comprehensive study on perpetrators, for which she should be commended. The enormous variety and diversity of topics as well as the readability of the book make it a useful addition to anyone’s library.