Scott Straus

Biography

Scott Straus (Berkeley Ph.D., 2004) is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Political Science and Professor of International Studies at the university of Winsconsin-Madison. He is a member of International Panel on Exiting Violence and co-editor in chief of Violence: An international journal. Straus works on violence, human rights, and African politics. His most recent books are Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention (US Holocuast Memorial Museum, 2016) and Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa (Cornell, 2015), which won awards from the American Political Science Association and the International Studies Association.  His 2006 book on the Rwandan genocide, The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda (Cornell University Press), also won several awards, including the best 2006 book in political science from the Association of American Publishers. He also has co-edited, with Lars Waldorf, Remaking Rwanda: State-Building and Human Rights in Rwanda (UW Press, 2011) and, with Steve Stern, The Human Rights Paradox: Universality and Its Discontents (UW Press, 2014).

Straus also co-authored, with David Leonard, Africa’s Stalled Development: International Causes and Cures (Lynne Rienner, 2003) and, with Robert Lyons, Intimate Enemy: Voices and Images of the Rwandan Genocide (Zone/MIT, 2006). Straus has published articles in American Journal of Political Science, World Politics, Politics and Society, Foreign Affairs, Perspectives on Politics, African Affairs, Terrorism and Political Violence, Genocide Studies and Prevention, The Journal of Genocide Research, and other journals; he translated The Great Lakes of Africa: Two Thousand Years of History (Zone 2003); and he has received fellowships from the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the United States Institute of Peace. In 2009, Straus was awarded the campus-wide William Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award, and in 2011 he was named a Winnick Fellow at the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Prior to his academic career, Straus was a freelance journalist in Africa.

Bibliography

Carter, K. M., & Straus, S. (2019). Changing Patterns of Political Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa. In K. M. Carter & S. Straus (Eds.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. Oxford University Press. 

Straus, S. (2019). The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

Straus, S., & Driscoll, B. (2019). International studies: global forces, interactions, and tensions. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Plauchut, A., Straus, S., & Jauffret, J.-C. (2018). Stratégies rebelles et aide internationale dans l’Afrique des Grands Lacs: 1981-2013. Paris: L’Harmattan.

Schwartz, R. A., & Straus, S. (2018). What drives violence against civilians in civil war? Evidence from Guatemala’s conflict archives. Journal of Peace Research, 55(2), 222–235. 

Straus, S. (2018). Making and Unmaking Nations: War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 

​Straus, S. (2017). Genocide and Human Rights. In M. E. Goodhart (Ed.), Human Rights: Politics and Practice (3rd ed., pp. 351-). Oxford University Press.

Straus, S. (2016). Ideology and Restraint: Genocide and Non-Genocide Cases in Comparative Perspective. In T. Hof (Ed.), Empire, ideology, mass violence: the long 20th century in comparative perspective (pp. 203–241). München: Herbert Utz Verlag, UTZ.

Straus, S. (2016). African politics. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Straus, S. (2016). Genocide. London: SAGE Publications Ltd.

Guichaoua, A., Webster, D. E., & Straus, S. (2015). From War to Genocide: Criminal Politics in Rwanda, 1990-1994. Madison, Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press.

Straus, S. (2014). From “Rescue” to Violence. In J. Semelin, C. Andrieu, & S. Gensburger (Eds.), Resisting Genocide (pp. 331–344). Oxford University Press. 

Straus, S. (2013). Genocide and Human Rights. In M. E. Goodhart (Ed.), Human rights: politics and practice (Second edition, pp. 273–289). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Straus, S. (2012, March 27). Uncoupling Post-War Côte d’Ivoire and Rwanda.

Straus, S., & Taylor, C. (2012). Democratization and Electoral Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990-2008. In D. A. O. Bekoe (Ed.), Voting in fear: electoral violence in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 15–38). Washington, D.C: United States Institute of Peace.

Bassett, T. F., & Straus, S. (2011). Defending democracy in Cote d’Ivoire: Africa takes a stand. Foreign Affairs, 90(4), 130–140.

Straus, S. (2010). Political Science and Genocide. In D. Bloxham & A. D. Moses (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of genocide studies (pp. 163–181). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Straus, S. (2009). The Promise and Limits of Comparison: The Holocaust and the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda. In A. S. Rosenbaum (Ed.), Is the Holocaust Unique?: Perspectives on Comparative Genocide. Westview Press Incorporated.245-257

Straus, S. (2009). A Step Forward. Genocide Studies and Prevention, 4(2), 185–190.

Straus, S., & Waldorf, L. (2009). Obituary: Alison Des Forges, 1942-2009. Journal of Genocide Research, 11(2–3), 2–3.

Straus, S. (2008). Rwanda’s Security Trap and Participation in the 1994 Genocide. In J.-P. Chrétien & R. Banegas (Eds.), The recurring Great Lakes crisis: identity, violence, and power. London: Hurst.

​Straus, S. (2008). Review of Darfur’s Sorrow: A History of Destruction and Genocide. The American Historical Review, 113(5), 1632–1633.

Straus, S. (2008). Order in disorder: a micro-comparative study of genocidal dynamics in Rwanda. In S. N. Kalyvas, I. Shapiro, & T. Masoud (Eds.), Order, conflict, and violence (pp. 301–320). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Levene, M., & Straus, S. (2007). Genocide in the age of the nation state. World Politics, 59(3), 476.

Straus, S. (2007). Second-Generation Comparative Research on Genocide. World Politics, 59(3), 476–501.

Straus, S. (2007). Second-generation comparative research on genocide. World Politics, 59(3), 476–501.

Straus, S., & Chalk, F. (2007). The order of genocide: race, power, and war in Rwanda. African Studies Review, 50(3), 181–183.

Braud, P.-A., Claverie, É., & Straus, S. (2006). Purifier et détruire. Usages politiques des massacres et génocides, de Jacques Sémelin. Politique africaine, (101), 195.

Chretien, J., & Straus, S. (2006). Great lakes of africa - two thousand years of history. Zone Books.

Walle, N. V. D., & Straus, S. (2006). The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda. Foreign Affairs, 85(6), 179.

Straus, S. (2006). Rwanda and Darfur: A Comparative Analysis. Genocide Studies and Prevention, 1(1), 41–56.

Straus, S. (2005). Conspiracy to Murder: The Rwanda Genocide and the International Community by Linda Melvern. Political Science Quarterly, 120(2), 348–350.