Washington, U.S.A.  – A new poll commissioned by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum finds that 67 years after the Holocaust, Americans believe genocide is still very possible, yet preventable, and they would like to see the US government play a major role in stopping it from happening around the world.

Americans expressed support for a range of strategies for preventing genocide, especially education about the Holocaust and other past atrocities. They are supportive of military action in cases like Syria and Sudan but they want the US to work in concert with other nations, according to the new telephone survey of 1000 people, conducted by Penn Schoen Berland between June 30 and July 10, 2012.

The poll was released in conjunction with the symposium “Imagine the Unimaginable: Ending Genocide in the 21st Century” held at the Museum, which featured a keynote address by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Presented in cooperation with the Council on Foreign Relations and CNN, the symposium examined the challenges of preventing genocide in years to come, and the opportunities and risks posed by new technologies, demographic changes and other trends.  Results of the poll helped guide the discussion during two panels that featured leading foreign policy experts, authors, academics and business leaders including Chairman of the US National Intelligence Council Christopher Kojm, Peter Schwartz,Timothy Snyder, Sarah Sewall, Arwa Damon, Richard Williamson and Strive Masiyiwa. The panels were moderated by CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer and Washington Post investigative reporter Dana Priest.

“Sixty seven years after the Holocaust, after which the world vowed ‘Never Again,’ it is unacceptable that genocide persists,” said Museum Chairman Tom Bernstein. “We are heartened by the results of this poll which show that the American people understand the danger that genocide still poses today, and that they believe that the US should be a leader in helping to prevent it, working together with other countries and international organizations.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum hopes this poll, today’s symposium and our ongoing efforts will make a substantial contribution to understanding and preventing genocide and other mass atrocities in the future.”

“The results are striking in that they show a deep American concern for genocide and a strong desire for global action to face this threat,” said Mark Penn, former presidential pollster and CEO of Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland.  “Americans believe they have a moral responsibility to prevent or stop genocide around the world, even if it means putting boots on the ground. But they view multilateral action as the most effective military strategy for prevention. They are well educated on the correct definition of genocide, especially young Americans, and believe education plays an important role in preventing this threat.”

The results of the poll are based on telephone interviews of 1,000 American respondents.  It has a margin of error of 3.1 percent.   The symposium and poll were made possible in part by a generous pro-bono contribution from Burson-Marsteller and Penn Schoen Berland.

Americans believe genocide is very possible but also preventable.

• 94% of Americans believe that genocide is still very much a concern and could occur today.
• 66% of Americans believe that it is preventable.

Americans believe the US government has a major role to play in stopping genocide.

• 69% think the US should prevent or stop genocide or mass atrocities from occurring in another part of the world.
• 78% support the US taking military action to stop genocide or mass atrocities.

Americans support a range of strategies for preventing genocide and are supportive of military action, but want the US to work in concert with other nations.

• 53% say multilateral action is the most effective military strategy, while only 10% say unilateral action by the U.S. is most effective.
• 76% believe that education about the history of genocide can help prevent future atrocities.
• Fewer than 1 in 10 Americans say the US is most responsible for preventing genocide; most believe international bodies or the countries involved in a conflict are more responsible.

Americans believe the international community is not effective at genocide prevention.

• 55% believe the international community is not effective at preventing civilians from genocide or mass atrocities.
• One in two Americans believes that the International Criminal Court is not effective at preventing genocide.

Imahe Courtesy of  shalunts / Shutterstock.com

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This year the world witnessed repercussions of the most disastrous and indecisive fiscal management in the Euro Zone that shattered one’s sense of security and disturbed the lives of millions of people.

The debt crisis of a hand-full of members of the Euro Zone has potentially inflicted a wound, that has possibly introduced a series of deathly rating downgrades across the region and exposed a lot of risky behavior, especially in the banking industry, credit markets and dithered global economic recovery.

The Contagion

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word contagion refers to a communication of disease from one person to another. In the world of finance and economics, it refers to the spread of economic crisis in one county’s bond or equity market to another.  In this case, there has been the communication or spread of fear, faithlessness, and inefficiency at the political level and, most tragically, the spread of an illogical attitude.

Greece was the first to be exposed to massive levels of debt and because of its inability to service its debt, apparently under a veil of ignorance and falsehood, became doomed and fear of default spread like a raging fire, putting into question the competency of these countries.

Crisis of Consensus

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the European Central Bank cannot be relied upon to resolve the crisis, since its statutory role is different from the Federal Reserve Bank or the bank of England. She further said that “no single stroke” will work and joint euro bonds are “unthinkable.”

On the other front, the occasion of the failure of the recent German bond issue, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin said that “it’s only got us closer to the end-game, either the break-up of the Euro or Euro bonds.”

The German Government had always been opposed to jointly-issued bonds, because it involves German taxpayers’ money for members of the bloc, it involves partial backing by German Government and, finally, it will contribute to a rise in cost of borrowing for Germany.

The Catastrophic Logic

In his book, “Back From The Brink,” Alistair Darling said he is gravely concerned that the coalition is repeating the mistakes made during the Great Depression in 1930’s in the United States.

The United States went into double-dip recession in 1937 because its government followed stiff fiscal tightening policies, andUK and debt-laden countries in the Euro-Zone today are following suit.

According to Keynesian school of thought, when effective demand is weak, expansionary fiscal policy should be followed, but under these circumstances, widening of authority of the ECB to finance state expenditure is quite undeniable rather than taking the hand away.

Greece has almost frozen its spending along with Italy to some extent, and it has strengthened the belief that the efforts should be in the reverse order to invite stability across the countries. Hopefully, the new proposal by Merkal to bring in radical changes in treaties will resurrect the rubble.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/europeancouncil/

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