Speaker at CGA discusses genocide prevention

New London - Michael C. Pryce discussed his theories on genocide prevention in New London on Feb. 24.

He told audiences at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Connecticut College that the United States should use a military planning framework across all levels of government to prevent genocides, instead of ignoring the problem or sending in the military when it happens.

"It needs to be formal process," Pryce said. "Right now this is not institutionalized so it's not happening. It's just hope and we had hope in Rwanda. That didn't work well for those folks."

Pryce was chief logistics planner for the Counterterrorism Joint Planning Group in 2001 following tactical deployments to Kosovo in 1999 and Bosnia in 2000 where he worked in both U.S. and NATO headquarters. He retired from the Marine Corps as a lieutenant colonel.

Pryce recommended supporting international organizations that prevent genocide. Prevention is mostly non-military action, like interrupting the financing for a genocide, he added.

"Genocides are deliberately planned," he said. "To do anything on this scale demands resources, direction, coordination, command and control. All of those are things we can do something about. We have to understand the situation, identify the strategy, predict the next step, develop options and prevent genocide as planners."

Intervening in a genocide is a "very complex operation," Pryce said, so the key is to figure out how to prevent it rather than to intervene.

The Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut organized the visit.

"We make it a big point in our teacher training to address the question how to prevent future genocides but we've never quite built a program around that," said Jerry Fischer, executive director of the federation. "We wanted to bring that approach to our curriculum development and to the community in general."

Fischer said he wanted people to know that "the problem is still very much with us and realize it is something we can do something about."