The power of "Genocide": international law as a dialectical progression of hard power through soft power toward legal power

In the existing academic literature on "genocide" there is an emphasis on moralistic arguments toward public acceptance of using the term genocide popularly in relation to specific events. This practice is unaccompanied by a recognition that the created genocide discourse is the product of a biased process, and that it is empowered to affect international law without being legally sanctioned to do so. Since the currently available scholarly information on "genocide" is grounded in self-assured presentations that the works of the genocide scholarship are social-scientific and reflective of the conscience of humanity, there is a lack of significant knowledge regarding the political use of the term genocide in the governing of global affairs. By employing a power-based theory, this study offers an interpretive analysis of available historical data to understand how "genocide" has been used as a tool for the advancement of international law. It shows that the term genocide has functioned as soft power through which hard power has been particularized toward legal power. Meaning, "genocide" has been used to bring governance closer to international law by appealing to group identity. Such a view of a dialectical progress identifies the power of "genocide" in the context of international law and invites new considerations of how the idea of international law may yet attain the combined qualities of authority and legitimacy in the quest for unified standards of governance worldwide.