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Violence and security class notes
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class notes for violence and security 2023
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v&s lectures6/04
Lecture 1 05/04/2023
Conceptualization of violence by Johan Galtung (1969):
● direct violence: behaviors carried out by an identifiable agent with the intent to inflict physical harm
● indirect violence: violence as present when humans systematically cannot fulfill their physical and
mental potential (=structural violence). Violence does not require intent and does not require a clear
agent
of political violence: it occurs in wartime (conflicts where there are 1000+ battle-related deaths in a given year)
and in times of peace (electoral violence, ethnic riots, etc.)
Conceptualization of peace by Galtung (1969):
● negative peace: the absence of direct violence
● related to the period of his writing, during the Cold War (fear and insecurity about violence
occurring or the use/acquirement of nuclear weapons)
● positive peace: a self-sustaining condition that protects the human security of a population
● related to the idea that everyone has the right to security and the possibility to flourish without
indirect violence that prevents people from fulfilling their potential.
=> not just about a condition of absence of direct violence!!
interstate violence is the most common
non-state conflict: slow increase in the involvement of non-state actors in conflict (like ISIS, or other armed
groups)
geographic distribution of conflict as of 2021: largely concentrated in Latin America, Central Africa, the Middle
East, and Southeast Asia
Paradigms (Kuhn 1962):
● lenses through which we see the world (especially in IR, for example, realism, constructivism, etc.)
● contains assumptions about the most important actors, their behaviors, and motivations
Paradigms in V&S
● approaches to interstate conflict
● approaches to .. conflict
Realism
the state is the principal actor in international politics
the state is:
● a unitary and rational actor that aims to maximize its interests
● and preferences are a zero-sum game
● #1 preference: national security
understanding of conflict/order
● the international order is characterized by anarchy => security is not guaranteed
● the only way states can protect themselves is by retaining power (mostly by building up
material capabilities)
● power = key to security
● the likelihood of war is shaped by the distribution of power in the international system
Liberalism
, actors and non-state actors are important (like transnational advocacy networks)
state: compound of different constituencies
● preferences are an aggregate of preferences of a wide range of state and societal actors
● preferences are not necessarily opposing, so not a zero-sum game
● outcomes are a process of negotiating and bargaining of domestic actors interacting with each
other
● national security is not always the most important consideration
understanding of conflict/order
● conflict is not inevitable
● positive sum game: cooperation and mutual gains are possible
order is possible thoughts:
● economic interdependence and free trade
● international institutions (with the existence of rules and punishments, which make the commitments
more credible)
● democratic institutions
3. Constructivism
actors and the interests that drive them are socially constructed
● assumptions about agent behaviors:
● political action is shaped by identities and interests
● who the actor is shaped what they view as appropriate action
● conflict and peace are therefore shaped by the content of identities and interests, which is why
norms are so important to social constructivism
● groups as socially constructed actors are not unitary actors
● violence is an attempt to delineate and assert group boundaries
Instrumentalism
elites are the primary actors and explanatory variables for the presence/absence of conflict
● assumptions:
● elites seek to maximize political power and other material gains, and they will foment violence
to meet their interests
Institutionalism
● it seeks to understand how political struggles are mediated by the institutional setting in which they take
place (overlap with liberalism)
7/04
violence and state formation
State: The organization that has a monopoly over the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory to
enforce its order (Weber). [police- legitimate, mafia-illegitimate]
State Formation: The long-term processes leading to centralizing political power within a sovereign territory.
State capacity: The ability of states to accomplish their goals.
- Often measured by a state’s military power and its bureaucratic/administrative capacity
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