Women in War: Being Protected or Combatant?

The downstream effects of combatant fragmentation on civil war recurrence

We consider whether the fragmentation of combatants during civil war has downstream effects on the durability of peace following civil wars. We contend that the splintering of combatant groups, a primary manifestation of rebel group fragmentation, produces potential spoiler groups that are neither incidental nor unimportant in the process of civil war resolution. Making connections to the spoil...

Well-being and war

Happiness research has dealt with a great number of determinants of well-being but has neglected the effect of war. Wars drastically reduce people’s happiness. The large psychic costs of soldiers, the suffering of civilians, and the material destruction are well documented. An important issue for happiness research is how to calculate the forgone well-being of the people killed in war. Wars may...

‘Protecting the non-combatant’: Chivalry, Codes and the Just War Theory

Over the centuries historians and scholars have documented the devastating effects that war has upon society; yet whilst it is known how destructive warfare can be, wars continue to be waged. There have, however, been attempts to provide rules and regulations to limit the damaging effects of conflict. The Greeks attempted to place restraints on the recourse and conduct of war, whilst the Romans...

Secrecy and drug regulation in Europe: who is being protected?

Repression or Civil War?∗

Perhaps the crowning achievement of mature democracies is the peaceful acceptance of the ballot box as the primary instrument for deciding who should hold power in society. We do not have to go far back in the history of most democratic states, however, to find a distinct role for political violence. Moreover, many inhabitants of the globe still remain at risk of falling prey to widespread viol...