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In the UN's Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court you'll find the definition of genocide,

Article 6 Genocide

For the purpose of this Statute, "genocide" means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; [...]

It makes sense if you're trying "with intent to destroy [...] in part a ethnic, racial, or religious" group to utilize the term "genocide." But if one nation state's army declares war on another nation state's army and enters into open hostilities both will be actively trying to destroy at least a part of the other's national group (the enlisted armed combatants if nothing else).

Does that mean every war is genocide?

Evan Carroll
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1 Answers1

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No.

"Destroy", in the context of the crime of genocide, refers to elimination of the entire collective "nation" and not merely some people, even a significant number of people, who are part of that nation. The notion is that "Killing members of the group" together with the other means identified, leaves the group with no members if the attempt is successful (or at least, eliminates all but an insignificant number of members of the group).

Typically, a war is fought for control of territory, or people or resources in a territory, not to destroy the people of a nation and completely replace them.

ohwilleke
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