Wartime Violence Research Articles

Emotions of perpetrators and victim-survivors: multi-layered violence against Chinese women during the Asia-Pacific War

ABSTRACT This essay uses a microhistory of Chinese comfort women during the Asia-Pacific War to illuminate the gendered dynamics of violence and the contrasting emotions experienced by both sexually abused women and their Japanese perpetrators, forming a perpetrator-victim dyad. The essay employs the concept of intersectional emotions within a micro-historical framework to demonstrate that this violence against Chinese women, marked by racialization, constitutes one of the many facets of wartime violence. This violence manifests in two contrasting emotional responses that characterize the dyadic interactions against the backdrop of widespread violence during the Asia-Pacific War. This analysis is highly relevant in contexts of power-saturated sites defined by multi-layered violence that is racial, gendered, and imperial. By investigating the dichotomy of emotive dimensions of violence, this essay contributes to a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay among emotions, violence, gender, race, and imperialism. This examination reveals insights into the emotional framework governing the dynamics of violence and challenges the prevailing assumption of uniformity in studies of violence against victim-survivors.

Domestic violence in wartime: legal issues

Domestic violence in wartime: legal issues

Temporalities in spatial narratives about war ruins in Mostar

The spatial turn in peace and conflict studies and the geographies of peace research agendas have underscored the importance of space in (post-)conflict societies. These fields, despite recognising that space and time are inseparable dimensions, often pay more attention to the former compared to the latter. To address this gap, this article explains how space relates to temporality, a concept that delves into the lived experiences of time. More specifically, I analyse how understandings of the past, present, and future shape spatial narratives about war ruins in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), where buildings targeted during the 1990s wars remain unreconstructed. Drawing on spatial narratives gathered through walks and elite interviews, I show that temporality is a crucial element of space because lived experiences of time structure individuals' perspectives on war ruins in Mostar. Four temporalities were woven into participants’ narratives: (1) narratives shaped by trauma temporalities where war ruins remind people of wartime violence and collapse past and present; (2) narratives driven by temporalities of nostalgia and opportunities that invite reflections about the future of Mostar; (3) narratives building on a temporality of commodification that sees ruins as marketable attractions for tourists; and (4) narratives framing ruins as barriers to synchronising Mostar to a temporality of modernity, characterised by notions of progress and economic development. Through these findings, I demonstrate that temporalities are a key factor in how individuals perceive space and highlight the importance of temporalities in explaining heterogeneous attitudes toward space in areas affected by violence.

The Long Red Summer on the Railroads: Labor, Race, and Exclusion in Appalachia

Abstract This essay examines the relationship between race, work, and exclusion during the Long Red Summer of 1919. I focus on several “transportation towns” of railroad employees in Appalachia to argue for the combined importance of labor history and racial ideology in attempts to understand wartime violence. Academic and federal government investigations inform my analysis, as does the robust body of scholarship on railroad labor. After examining racism embedded in railroad work, unions, and community life, the essay then turns to the Wilson administration’s nationalization of the roads during the war. Wartime changes resulted in higher wages for Black workers and many perceived threats to the racialized labor hierarchy. What was once white railroaders’ effort to exclude African Americans from certain jobs became one to expel them from the industry entirely. In several transportation towns that experienced wartime migration, however, this impulse transformed into a campaign to remove Black people from their communities once and for all. I cite testimony from a grand jury trial of an expulsion, railroad union journals, and newspaper accounts of mob violence that made it clear that the transportation towns belonged to white labor at the end of the Long Red Summer.

War-Related Life Course Stress and Late-Life Subjective Age in Northern Vietnam.

The role of early life stressors in subjective aging is weakly understood, especially in low- to middle-income countries. This paper investigated how early life stressors encountered in armed conflict influence subjective age among Vietnamese older adults who experienced war over decades of their early life. We analyzed survey data from the 2018 Vietnam Health and Aging Study involving 2,447 Vietnamese older adults who encountered diverse war-related stressors in early adulthood. The analytical sample (N = 2,341) included 50.9% women and 49.1% men, with an average age of 69.8. 41.1% are military veterans. We conducted survey-adjusted multinomial logistic regression analyses with mediation to predict the probability of feeling younger or older than one's chronological age. We examined how childhood adversity (i.e., childhood hunger and low parental SES) and wartime stressors (i.e., war-related violence, malevolent environment, and military service) influenced late-life subjective age, both directly and as mediated by late-life mental, functional, and physical health. We found significant associations between early adulthood war-related stressors and subjective age. Formal military service significantly lessened the relative risk of feeling subjectively old, and more plentiful wartime violence exposures significantly increased the risk of feeling younger than one's chronological age. Violence exposure's effects were both direct and indirect through functional and mental health. Conversely, greater exposure to wartime malevolent conditions (e.g., shortages of clean water and evacuations) and multiple episodes of severe hunger in childhood increased the risk of feeling older, effects both direct and mediated by late-life functional and mental health. Results suggest wartime stressors, especially war's malevolent environments and severe childhood hunger, experienced in many conflict-affected populations globally, have the potential to subjectively "age" survivors. Yet, not all war exposures are equal, and some may yield psychological and socioeconomic resources that support healthy aging.

Portrait of the victim of domestic violence and its characteristics under the conditions of marital state

The article highlights the need and prospects of researching a typical portrait of a victim of domestic violence. The study of socio-demographic characteristics helps to determine the most important directions of preventive work, in particular among those population groups whose representatives most often become victims of this crime. We analyze information about gender - in the vast majority of cases it is women; age - young women are the most vulnerable; level of education – usually the victims have a low level of education and other data on the social status of the victims.
 The peculiarities of victims in the conditions of war are studied. Thus, victims of domestic violence in times of war are characterized by stress, anxiety, depression and physical trauma, among other things. In addition, they may feel isolated and fearful because of military actions and threats. In war, victims of domestic violence are more vulnerable.
 It was concluded that a special feature of victims of domestic violence is the lack of housing or other accommodation where a woman could move and take her children. It has been found that women stay with the abuser and continue to suffer due to imposed stereotypes or traditions that glorify marriage as the highest value and call for the preservation of the family at any cost. At the same time, an important factor is the presence of people who convince the woman (or support her confidence) that she herself is to blame for the violence and can stop it by fully submitting to her partner’s demands.
 The relationship between the level of intelligence and the possibility of becoming a victim is investigated. Such a high level of intelligence makes it possible not to be influenced by others and to defend one’s own opinion. Usually, victims of domestic violence do not have their own vision, are manipulated, and do not take responsibility.
 There is an increasing trend in the number of victims of domestic violence with the presence of addiction, in particular drug, alcohol, and toxic substances.
 It has been studied that the consequences of violence on children affect their entire future life, forming poorly educated, socially maladapted individuals who face problems in creating a family and are unable to become good, loving parents.

Fear or Anger? Leaders’ Childhood War Trauma and Interstate Conflict Initiation

Abstract How does a leader’s childhood exposure to war influence their propensity to initiate conflicts? While much research explains leaders’ national security policies using their combat and rebel experiences, few scholars have examined the effects of childhood wartime violence. I develop and test two competing arguments about the effects of childhood war trauma on future conflict behavior. One argument expects that leaders exposed to war at a young age will be less likely to initiate conflict because they fear its consequences. An alternative perspective expects that these leaders are more likely to initiate conflict out of anger and a desire for revenge. I test my hypotheses using an original dataset and a research design that reduces inference barriers. Leveraging variations in the level of violence experienced during wartime, I only compare leaders who were exposed to foreign military invasions as children. I find that those who experienced severe war trauma, such as family deaths, injuries, or displacement, are less likely to initiate interstate conflicts than those who did not experience such traumatic events. These effects are substantial, particularly when political constraints are weak. My results suggest that childhood war trauma has a long-term impact on leaders’ conservatism about using force.

Feminist Strike: Liberia

This paper examines the notion of feminist strike in reference to women peacemakers in Liberia. It argues that women's actions to bring an end to the war both instantiates normative notions of the feminist strike and expands them. Drawing on literature which points to a long history of Liberian women organizing as women with special roles and responsibilities in society, the paper invites us to adopt a broad understanding of the feminist strike. It also suggests that women's mobilization around the concept of a sex strike to force the end of war in the early 2000s, was a powerful and savvy move which criticised sexual violence in wartime, leveraged international attention, and also highlighted, if implicitly, the issue of sexual rights in marriage.

Sexual violence in conflicts: the shadow pandemic. A review of controversial issues.

This article explores the persistent and deeply troubling issue of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) throughout history and in contemporary conflicts. It examines the roots of wartime sexual violence in wartime, the evolving international legal framework for the protection of civilians, and the emergence of concerns about the protection of women and girls from such violence. The article delves into controversial aspects, including competing theories to explain CRSV, the challenges in obtaining accurate data on its prevalence, and the often-overlooked issue of CRSV against men and boys. It also addresses the cultural and societal factors that perpetuate CRSV and the long-lasting consequences on survivors. The article concludes by underscoring the importance of comprehensive care for survivors and the need to tackle the deep-seated causes of this violence, including gender inequality.

Violence beyond the Battlefield: Civilian Targeting, Sexual Violence, and Women’s Political Empowerment

Abstract Research has established links between intrastate conflict and political gains by women following war, suggesting that changes of a positive nature can emerge from the misery of war. While much of the empirical focus on conflicts’ transformative effects has been on battle-related violence, we investigate whether pro-social effects are associated with two other types of violence perpetrated against civilians—one-sided violence and sexual violence. We expect that both one-sided violence and sexual violence spur mobilization, which in turn contributes to gains in women’s political empowerment. Informed by feminist scholarship, we also draw attention to social and political constraints associated with high levels of sexual violence, restrictions that we argue women are unlikely to confront to a similar degree with respect to high levels of one-sided and other forms of violence. We posit that these factors will result in the attenuation of gains in women’s political power in conflicts characterized by high levels of sexual violence. Using cross-national data on civil conflicts for the period 1989–2017, we find that moderate levels of sexual violence are consistently associated with gains in women’s political empowerment, an effect that diminishes in conflicts marked by widespread sexual violence. One-sided violence, on the other hand, is not associated with improvements in women’s political empowerment. Our results demonstrate the importance of considering the different forms of wartime violence, and the differential impacts these forms of violence have on women.​

Credible messengers, formers, and anti-war veterans: Former fighters as resources for violence/war disruption

Abstract This article considers an unlikely source for non-militarized approaches to disrupting war and other forms of violence: fighters themselves. How can engaging with fighters/former fighters realize novel forms of violence/war disruption across various contexts, and what are the barriers to and implications of such engagement? Fighters’ exit from their armed organizations can be a source of violence/war disruption in two ways: first, through the sheer act of leaving and thereby diminishing the fighting capability of an armed organization, and, second, through using their credibility as former fighters to engage in activism to influence other current fighters, as well as the broader public, to refuse participation in or support for violence/war. Examining the work of “credible messengers,” “formers,” and anti-war veterans to disrupt street violence, extremist violence, and wartime violence, respectively, reveals surprising commonalities among them, as well as strikingly different reactions to their respective forms of disengagement/refusal and the policies they require.

Type of Violence and Ingroup Identity: Evidence From the Spanish Civil War

Wartime violence and authoritarian repression against civilians take various forms. Past research has explored the causes and consequences of violence, but no previous work simultaneously assessed the long-term effects of different types of violence on political identities. This paper contends that indiscriminate attacks can reinforce ingroup identity, whereas the role of civilian agency in selective violence may have a detrimental impact. Equipped with original data capturing municipality-level exposure to both selective and indiscriminate violence during the Spanish civil war (1936–1939) in Biscay (Basque Country), this study examines its legacy on voting behavior (1983–2015). Results indicate that fascist airstrikes increased Basque nationalism while selective violence diminished the popularity of Basque parties. Individual and community-level evidence suggests that airstrikes fostered the intergenerational transmission of political attitudes. Violence can boost national identities, but it can also erode them: it depends on the type.

Hva kan arves? Om skyld, vold og seksualitet i to nordiske krigsminneromaner

During the last two decades, an increasing focus on perpetrators has emerged in Scandinavian literature. This so called perpetrator fiction, with an explicit intention of understanding evil, has portrayed the Nazis and their henchmen in detail. These are frequently described in familial relationships, and their stories are told from a second or third generational point of view. Interestingly, the perpetrators are regularly depicted as perverse persons and their deviant sexuality as part of the problem. In this article, I discuss two Scandinavian novels with the family as a narrative structure and the perpetrator as its main character. The novels Jeg har arvet en mørk skog (2012) by Morten Borgersen and Stormen. En berättelse (2016) by Steve Sem-Sandberg deal with wartime events seen from a present-day I-narrator’s point of view. Both novels incorporate mythology and perverse sexuality, and they ask provocative questions about the causes of wartime violence.

Exploring factors and implications of violence against civilians: a case study of the Soviet-Afghan war

ABSTRACT The Soviet-Afghan War serves as a significant case study to understand why states resort to violent acts against civilians during war. This study takes a multidimensional approach, examining strategic, operational, and individual factors and applying theories of violence and mass killing. By analyzing the conditions that led the Soviets to target civilians, this investigation identifies a nexus of interconnected factors. At the strategic level, Soviet leaders pursued a swift victory to establish a Communist client regime while minimizing casualties and controlling information flow. Operationally, the ill-preparedness of the Red Army for counterinsurgency warfare, coupled with an entrenched organizational culture, led to the adoption of counterproductive enemy-centric tactics against Afghan noncombatants. Additionally, inadequate training, prolonged deployments, and a lack of disciplinary measures at the individual level contributed to the perpetration of violent acts. Understanding the underlying causes of violence against civilians, particularly in the context of Russian forces, holds practical importance. This knowledge can assist policymakers in devising strategies that mitigate wartime violence and enhance the protection of citizens. Drawing parallels to contemporary conflicts involving Russia, the study concludes by recommending future research directions and emphasizing the relevance of comprehending the targeting of noncombatants in ongoing conflicts, notably the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The Ties that Bind: War Histories and Online Social Networks in Postwar Societies

We use a large quota-sampled online survey and data on Facebook connections among survey respondents in six successor states of former Yugoslavia to demonstrate that, even more than two decades after the violence had ended, online social connections in this region are substantially related to people’s war experiences of combat, victimhood, and forced migration, as well as to their views of the wars’ causes, conduct, and consequences. What is particularly important, the sizes of the effects of these war-related factors on respondents’ online social networks are substantively large and comparable to those of gender, ethnicity, education, or political ideology. Our findings are an important contribution to the understanding of the deeply pervasive and long-lasting effects of wars on societies. They also highlight the enduring relevance of wartime violence in postwar social networks that is likely to affect efforts at enduring conflict resolution and reconciliation.

Gender-Based Violence in Bosnia From Conflict to The Post-Conflict Setting

This review article aims to investigate gender-based violence in wartime and post-war Bosnia. While the existing literature exclusively focuses on the relationship between gender and nationalism, this article rather addresses the psychological and economic violence against women in Bosnia. By adopting a continuum approach, this study uncovers how different forms of violence against women interact with each other from the conflict to the post-conflict contexts. Through a literature survey, this study depicts how gender-based violence has been reproduced from past to present in the case of Bosnia. In discussing gender-based violence, it dwells upon the intersections between mass rapes, forced pregnancy and traumatization. As the main argument, this article contends that sexual violence during the war triggered the spiral of violence and further led to stigmatization and marginalization of these women in the post-war context. It is especially argued that the persistent public stigma is the most blatant manifestation of psychological violence against female rape victims. In addition, it is shown that the overlapping processes of conflict, patriarchy and neoliberalization have led to a series of economic injustices, such as, in the form of the dispossession, poverty and exclusion of women in Bosnia. This article overall suggests establishing linkages between sexual, psychological and economic violence against women during the conflict and post-conflict processes.

Quotidian crime, wartime violence and public goods preferences: Evidence from Liberia

Much of the literature on victimization looks at the effect of organized violence (OV) on civilian perceptions and behaviour. Yet citizens in countries experience quotidian crime (QC) on a daily basis. QC differs from OV, the former being more isolated, while the latter is more of a collective experience. As such we develop a theoretical framework that explores the effects of both types of violence on preferences for public goods. Victims of OV may prefer welfare public goods for the entire community, whereas victims of QC may prefer security for themselves. We also test the effects of compound victimization on public goods’ preferences. We use original survey data from rural Liberia to test our hypotheses and find support for our argument. Our results show the importance of a disaggregated approach to understanding the effects of violence on preferences.

From Victims to Dissidents: Legacies of Violence and Popular Mobilization in Iraq (2003–2018)

A growing literature links experiences of armed conflict with postwar political behavior. This paper examines how legacies of wartime violence shape dynamics of protest in twenty-first-century Iraq. We argue that experiences of shared violence against civilians generate strong social and organizational ties, as individuals turn to neighbors, friends, and communal organizations or social groups to help them cope. These strengthened social networks endure beyond the end of the conflict, forming important vehicles that can facilitate the organization of protest when new grievances or opportunities arise. Further, we posit that these effects will be strongest when the perpetrator of wartime violence is a clear out-group—e.g., a foreign army or non-coethnic militia—which facilitates network strengthening by creating a sense of collective victimization and in-group solidarity. We support these arguments using an original database of Iraqi protests from 2010 to 2012 and data on civilian casualties during Iraq’s 2004–2009 conflict. We further test our argument with geo-referenced Arab Barometer surveys. We leverage a case study of Fallujah, based on original interviews and other qualitative data, to unpack mechanisms of network strengthening, endurance, and reactivation during the Iraqi protest wave of 2011.

Justice as fairness or retribution? Citizen reactions to domestic trials of wartime violence

How do domestic trials addressing wartime violence affect public opinion of government? The legitimation functions of national courts are well studied in liberal democracies, but less is known about the effects of trials that address abuses committed during large-scale conflict. This article investigates how the extent to which such trials achieve procedural justice (fairness in process) and retributive justice (allocation of punishment) affects perceptions of political legitimacy. I provide survey-experimental evidence from post-conflict El Salvador that leverages the repeal of a longstanding amnesty law. Although a trial in general improves citizen evaluations of state competence, fairness and punishment serve crucial – and distinct – legitimation functions. Procedural fairness significantly increased citizens’ willingness to comply with state authorities, regardless of trial outcome. Yet, an unfair trial, when coupled with punishment, bolstered trust in politicians and the judiciary. This suggests a trade-off between public preferences for fairness and an ‘iron fist’ approach to violence. The findings reveal the limits of procedural justice in a post-conflict environment and furnish new insights on the multifaceted functions of human rights trials.

Poetical thanatosonics—from vibrating bodies to documentary poems, based on Polish wartime verse

AbstractBringing together the methodology of sound studies and literary criticism, this article examines multiple affordances of documentary poems that stage wartime sounds along with correlated somatic reactions and diverse modes of sonic affectivity. The conceptual tools are borrowed from the works of J. Martin Daughtry, who coined the term “thanatosonics” to render the unity of wartime violence and audial phenomena. Daughtry's model of wartime audition provides a comprehensive framework for the analysis of poems which can be treated as first‐hand testimonies originating from one of the following: “the trauma,” “tactical,” “narrational,” or “audible inaudible” zones. These testimonies can also be analyzed through the complementary scheme of affective zones that seizes the multitude of sonically triggered reactions, from the pure shock identifiable with a sudden burst of affect, through emergent emotions connected with survival skills, to elaborated patterns within the cultural politics of emotions. The positionality of the authors of thanatosonic verse is essential, and different measures have to be taken towards texts written by soldiers and non‐combatants (e.g., civilians, prisoners). The proposed methodology is applied to examine both traditional and avant‐garde poems written in Polish during World War II.