According to former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger, “there is no rationality regarding ethnic conflicts. It's instinct, it's hate” (Z). Despite this claim, however, many political scientists assert that mass murder is rational and has a purpose for those who instigate it: two of these theorists, Barry Posen and Benjamin Valentino, present two different philosophies. Posen presents a theory of mass murder that focuses on the realist school of thought, and therefore primarily on the concept of security dilemma and anarchy. Unlike Posen who presents his theory based on the state level of analysis, Valentino presents a theory that includes the individual level of analysis, and as such can be considered a follower of the constructivist school of thought. His theory attempts to explain mass killing as a strategy that leaders use to achieve their long-term goals. Posner's realist explanation describes a limited range of mass killings: it can simply describe and predict the mass killings and ethnic conflicts that can occur after the deterioration of a large central authority into small ethnic subgroups, such as what happened to Yugoslavia. In contrast, Valentino's theory not only offers rationalizations for all types of ethnic conflict and genocide, but also presents an accurate model that can be used to predict the occurrence of such events in the future. Therefore, due to Valentino's ability to present explanations for most cases of mass murder in history and the ease of predicting such events occurring in the future, his theory for mass murder is superior to Posner's limited explanation and to the even more limited ability to calculate the probabilities of mass murder. future manifestations of mass killing that are offered in his ra...... middle of paper...... Valentino offers the rationalization of a tragedy that is all too common throughout history: the mass killing of people and the incidence of ethnic conflict. These two political scientists approach the issue in different ways. Posen applies realist theory and therefore uses anarchy and the security dilemma as an explanation, while Valentino uses the constructivism approach to explain how mass killings are a tool implemented by leaders to achieve their goals. Due to the limited scope of Posen's theory, however, Valentino's rationalization is superior, since it not only explains what Posen's theory accomplishes, but also broadens its range. Thus, Valentino not only successfully explains a phenomenon that has perplexed for centuries, but also offers the necessary tools to predict and, since personal responsibility is high in his theory, prevent such atrocities from happening again in the future..