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.
