The Logic of Violence in Civil War [Paperback]

This book demonstrates that there is logic to violence in civil war.Why is violence in civil war so brutal when it is often taking place between people who know each other? Is such violence an instance of collective madness? This book demonstrates that there is logic to this violence, entailing the joint action of armed organizations and individual civilians.Why is violence in civil war so brutal when it is often taking place between people who know each other? Is such violence an instance of collective madness? This book demonstrates that there is logic to this violence, entailing the joint action of armed organizations and individual civilians.By analytically decoupling war and violence, this book explores the causes and dynamics of violence in civil war. Against the prevailing view that such violence is an instance of impenetrable madness, the book demonstrates that there is logic to it and that it has much less to do with collective emotions, ideologies, and cultures than currently believed. Kalyvas specifies a novel theory of selective violence: it is jointly produced by political actors seeking information and individual civilians trying to avoid the worst but also grabbing what opportunities their predicament affords them. Violence, he finds, is never a simple reflection of the optimal strategy of its users; its profoundly interactive character defeats simple maximization logics while producing surprising outcomes, such as relative nonviolence in the 'frontlines' of civil war.Introduction; 1. Concepts and definitions; 2. Pathologies; 3. Barbarism; 4. A theory of irregular war I: collaboration; 5. A theory of irregular war II: control; 6. The logic of indiscriminate violence; 7. A theory of selective violence; 8. Empirics I: comparative evidence; 9. Empirics II: microcomparative evidence; 10. Intimacy; 11. Cleavage and agency; Conclusion.While exciting and extensive, the recent literature on civil wars suffers from poorly specified and empirically untested calƒv