Putting forward the argument that the strength of democracies can be measured in how well minorities – especially ethnic and racial minorities – are treated by the majority, Larry May’s Ethnic Cleansing maintains that unjust ethnic cleansing is one of the greatest internal challenges to the modern institutions of pluralistic and multicultural states.

In order to determine what constitutes the crime of ethnic cleansing, this book details crucial conceptual issues around the topic, such as what ethnicity means, what ethnic cleansing claims to achieve, why these acts are invariably harmful, and the conditions of restitution, reparation, and reconciliation – affirming that ethnic cleansing must be countered by existing institutions such as the International Criminal Court, which is uniquely situated to prosecute ethnic cleansing.

The first major study to analyze ethnic cleansing from an explicitly normative and conceptual perspective in the last decade, the increase in number and complexity of cases of ethnic cleansing makes this a timely book to understand the challenges that confront contemporary society.