The Logic of Violence in Civil War

A ground-breaking work that has revolutionized the study of civil war, Kalyvas’s book proposes a detailed framework around levels of violence used in numerous fields to examine interactions between armed groups, states, and civilians around the globe. Logic argues the violence used in civil war – be it selective, indiscriminate, large-scale or micro-violence – correlates to the degree of control exerted upon a given territory by any warring party. Regardless of political and ideological beliefs, civilian populations cooperate with a locally dominant warring parties out of the necessity for self-preservation, calling into question the theory underlying ‘hearts and minds’ campaigns in counterinsurgency operations. Particularly relevant for its considered discussion of the functions of violence, control, and influence during civil wars and how this interplay between state and non-state actors should be understood, this text thus offers valuable insight for military leaders and commanders likely to operate in complex modern battlefields.