Chapter 14, Conclusion Summary

Over the last century, the United States has made some improvements in its responses to genocide. Their progress is greatly overshadowed by the U.S. toleration of atrocities and violence when they had full knowledge of what was happening. Although both policymakers and the American public have promised that genocides will "never again," take place, they have continued to happen and the U.S. has continued to fail to intervene in a meaningful way. Power argues that what is most surprising is that the U.S. has failed to give the genocides the moral attention they warranted. She asks why the U.S. stands idly by while genocide happens.

A common response to this is that "we didn't know." Power argues that this isn't true. Although the information has at times been imperfect and incomplete, U.S. officials knew much about the...