Puneet Varma (Editor)

Policide

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Policide is a neologism used in political science to describe the intentional destruction of a city or nation.

Contents

Origin

Writer Michael Walzer credits the origin of the term "policide" (here, meaning the "destruction of a state's independence") to Abba Eban, Israel's foreign minister in 1967.

Similarly, professor Steve J. Stern has adopted "policide" to mean the destruction of political life itself. Stern describes the term as an extension of a family of terms including homicide, patricide, tyrannicide, genocide, democide, and ethnocide. Stern uses the term "policide," rooted in the Greek term polis (πόλις) for "city-state" or "body politic," in order to describe what he characterizes as "a systematic project to destroy an entire way of doing and understanding politics and governance" in Chile under the governance of Augusto Pinochet.

Policide is used with some regularity within political science, generally to refer to a policy of destruction that falls short of genocide or ethnocide, and may involve the destruction of a city or nation. For example:

  • In Writing Ground Zero, John Whittier Treat refers several times to the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as "policide."
  • In Circle of Goods, Tressa Lynn Berman describes United States policy towards Native Americans as a historical process shifting from ethnocide into "policide."
  • The term "policide" frequently arises with respect to the intention to eradicate the state of Israel. Yossi Beilin discusses Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's use of the term to describe the Palestine Liberation Organization's claim that it is dedicated to the ultimate destruction of the State of Israel. Netanyahu has continued to use the term in his writings and speeches, for example writing that "Arafat pursues a goal of 'policide' - the destruction of the Jewish state, by employing the means of suicide and mass terror". The declared intention of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the destruction of Israel and this had led to claims that Arab/Muslim groups support the notion of policide regarding Israel.

    • References

    Policide Wikipedia
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