United by Violence, Divided by Cause?

Abstract

Political violence is everywhere. But how does it emerge and what can be done about it? This book addresses the diversity of violence in South Asia, South East Asia and Western Europe. It examines the various forms of ideological backgrounds, structural conditions, relations and aims of non-state actors who are involved in violence in these regions and certain countries. Thereby, this book presents a similar diversity of theoretical and disciplinary approaches towards explaining the same phenomenon: violence. The rationale behind this collection of approaches and case studies is to identify communalities on the one hand, and to counter simple, unidimensional explanations of why non-state actors resort to violence on the other. Finally, it provides policy recommendations on how to counter violence. With contributions by Greg Barton, D. SubaChandran, Aurel Croissant, Rohan Gunaratna, Kevin McDonald, Subrata K. Mitra, Khuram Iqbal, Serina Rahman, La Toya Waha and Christian Echle