Theories of Violent Conflict: An Introduction

This revised and updated second edition introduces students of violent conflict to a variety of prominent theoretical approaches, and examines the ontological stances and epistemological traditions underlying these approaches.

Theories of Violent Conflict takes the centrality of the ‘group’ as an actor in contemporary conflict as a point of departure, leaving us with three main questions:

• What makes a group?

• Why and how does a group resort to violence?

• Why and how do or don’t they stop?

Th...