ALT From what I gather from those who have studied the history of genocide-its definition and application—there seems to be a pattern. Nation-states, governments seeking legitimacy and identity, seem able and determined to shape themselves by the destruction of a collective "other." When European nations were in thrall to royal consolidation, they were able to act out this slaughter in other countries-African, South American, Asian. Australia and the United States, self-declared republics, required the annihilation of all indigenous peoples if not the usurpation of their land to create their new, democratic state. The fall of communism created a bouquet of new or reinvented nations who measured their statehood by "cleansing" communities. Whether the targets were of different religions, races, cultures-whatever reasons were found first to demonize then to expel or murder them. For an assumed safety, hegemony, or pure land grabs, foreigners were con- structed as the sum total of the putative