David Bruce MacDonald


David Bruce MacDonald is a professor in Political Science at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada and is the Research Leadership Chair for the College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. From 2002 to 2008, he worked as a senior lecturer at the Political Studies Department, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. From 1999-2002 he was Assistant Visiting Professor in the Social Sciences at the ECSP Europe.
He was deputy editor/book reviews editor of . He holds a PhD in International relations from the LSE which he attended as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. He earned his BA from Carleton University, and his MA in Political Science from the University of Ottawa. MacDonald has contributed as a writer to multiple Canadian journalistic publications, such as The Globe and Mail, ''The National Post, and the Toronto Star.

Career

Work on the former Yugoslavia

His first book, Balkan Holocausts?: Serbian and Croatian Victim Centered Propaganda and the War in Yugoslavia, compares and contrasts Serbian and Croatian propaganda from 1986 to 1999, analyzing each group's contemporary interpretations of history and current events.
In 2015, The National Post explored MacDonald's analysis of the Croatia–Serbia genocide case. Agreeing with the ruling to dismiss both cases, MacDonald was sceptical of either Serbia or Croatia having committed genocide, writing that it was "not enough to kill people, or move them around and steal their land". He added that it was essential to prove any perpetrators of genocide "had this bigger motivation to destroy the group in whole or in part". Canadian newspaper Le Devoir reported on MacDonald's view that John A. Macdonald, and his government, committed "quasi-genocidal" actions against indigenous peoples in Canada during the 19th century.

Identity politics and genocide

His second book, Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide examined how Holocaust "Americanization" impacted other ethnic and social groups. The book featured theoretical chapters about the use/misuse of the term by ethnic and social groups, and dissected claims of Holocaust uniqueness.

U.S. politics

Thinking History, Fighting Evil applies his theoretical work to the study of American domestic and foreign policy. The presents the most thorough exploration to date of how World War II analogies, particularly those focused on the Holocaust, have colored American foreign policy-making after 9/11.

Publications

Books