Violence and Security: Paradigms and Debates (73220041FY)
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Lecture notes Violence and Security: Paradigms and Debates (FY)
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Violence and Security: Paradigms and Debates (73220041FY)
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
In-depth lecture notes for the course of Violence and security. Includes guiding questions at the beginning of each chapter to aid the learning process. The two guest lectures don't have lecture notes typed but rather short summaries of the content of the accessible papers.
Violence and Security: Paradigms and Debates (73220041FY)
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Violence and Security: Concepts and Approaches
Questions you should know how to answer after Session 1:
● What is political violence?
● What paradigms/approaches have been developed in order to understand and analyse political
violence and conflict?
● What is the state of violence in the world today?
Joahn Galtung provides two conceptualizations of violence as well as peace:
● Violence
○ Direct violence: Behaviours carried out by a clearly identifiable agent with the intent to
inflict bodily harm.
■ Requires presence of a perpetrator and intent.
■ Political violence is a form of direct violence which occurs during times of war
as well as during times of peace.
● Political violence during times of war is recognized as such if 1000+
battle deaths per year are recorded in a given year.
● Examples of political violence in times of peace are vigilantism,
electoral violence and ethnic riots.
○ Structural violence: Violence as present when humans systematically cannot fulfil their
physical and mental potential.
■ Does not require intent nor a clear perpetrator (agent).
● Peace
○ Negative peace: The absence of direct violence.
○ Positive peace: A self-sustaining condition that protects the human security of a
population.
■ The concept of positive peace is theoretical in nature due to its subjective state
of being.
In the process of peacebuilding you go from a state of conflict, to a situation of negative peace while
maintaining the aim to ultimately achieve positive peace.
,Reading: Shawn Davies, Therése Pettersson and Magnus Öburg. 2023: “Organised Violence 1989-2022,
and the return of conflict between states.” - The data is collected from the UCDP database.
Figure 1: Organised violence by type of violence, 1989–2022
● Total fatalities in organised
violence increased by 97%
from 2021 to 2022, reaching
237,000.
● Increase driven by deadly
state-based conflicts, notably
the Ethiopia intrastate
conflict and the
Russia–Ukraine interstate
conflict.
● Ethiopia and Ukraine
conflicts accounted for 89%
of all recorded state-based
battle-related deaths.
● Decrease in non-state
fatalities despite an increase in
conflicts and actors
perpetrating one-sided
violence.
● Violence decreased in Asia
and the Middle East,
contributing to a change in
the geographical pattern of
violence.
Figure 2: Fatalities in state-based conflicts by region, 1989–2022
● Fatalities in state-based
conflicts reached the highest
levels recorded, with over
200,000 battle-related deaths
in 2022.
● Increase in both the number
of state-based armed conflicts
and conflicts reaching the
intensity level of war.
● Violence drastically increased
in Africa and Europe due to
conflicts in Ethiopia and
Ukraine.
● Africa remained the continent
with the highest number of
state-based armed conflicts.
, Figure 3: State-based armed conflict by type, 1946–2022
● Past WW2 there has been an
increase in civil wars.
● Interstate war is the most
prevalent form of conflict.
● Myanmar is a case of
internationalised interstate
conflict which is the second
most prevalent type of
conflict since the 2000s.
● Internationalised intrastate
conflicts decreased in 2022
but remain at historically high
levels.
● Africa had the highest
number of state-based armed
conflicts.
● Increase not due to expansion
of IS but to al-Qaeda-aligned
JNIM in Africa.
Figure 4: Fatalities in non-state conflict by type of organisation, 1989–2022
● Global non-state conflicts
increased in 2022, with
Mexico and Syria driving the
trend.
● Most deadly conflicts
involved formally organised
groups, notably criminal
gangs like CJNG in Mexico.
● Increase in gang violence,
especially in Latin America
and the Caribbean.
Figure 5: Fatalities in non-state conflict between criminal gangs compared to other formally organised groups, 1989–2022
● Conflict between formally
organised groups increased
rapidly since 2014.
● Rise in fatalities from gang
violence, particularly in
Mexico and other parts of
Latin America.
● Gang violence also increased
in Brazil, Haiti, El Salvador,
and Honduras.
, Figure 6: Fatalities in one-sided violence by type of actor, 1989–2022
● Trend in one-sided violence
continued to increase in 2022.
● IS remained the actor killing
most civilians, with a surge in
killings in Mali.
● Increase in state-on-civilian
violence, notably by Russia in
connection with the Ukraine
invasion.
● Majority of one-sided killings
by non-state actors,
particularly in Africa.
Thomas Kuhn (1962), in his work “Scientific revolutions”, conceptualises paradigms (theoretical
frameworks) as lenses through which we see the world and they contain assumptions about:
● The most important actors, their behaviour and their motivations,
● What leads to war and violence,
● What allows for peace and security,
Within the realm of political science there are two main areas of focus which can be used to differentiate
the different types of paradigms:
● International Relations
○ Realism (Kennet and Waltz)
■ The state is the principal actor of international politics.
● Follows the “billiard ball model”.
■ The state is unitary in nature and behaves as a rational actor which seeks to
maximise its own interests (= maximise its national security).
■ In its understanding of order and conflict, the international system is
characterised by a state of anarchy where power superiority (often in terms of
material capabilities) is the central concern.
● Hence, the likelihood of war is shaped by the distribution of power in
the international system, and security is not a guarantee due to its
anarchical nature.
■ 0-sum game.
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