Order, Conflict, and Violence

Stathis N. Kalyvas · Ian Shapiro · Tarek Masoud

Sep 2008 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

There might appear to be little that binds the study of order and the study of violence and conflict. Bloodshed in its multiple forms is often seen as something separate from and unrelated to the domains of 'normal' politics that constitute what we think of as order. But violence is used to create order, to maintain it, and to uphold it in the face of challenges. This volume demonstrates the myriad ways in which order and violence are inextricably intertwined. The chapters embrace such varied disciplines as political science, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, and law; employ different methodologies, from game theory to statistical modeling to in-depth historical narrative to anthropological ethnography; and focus on different units of analysis and levels of aggregation, from the state to the individual to the world system. All are essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand current trends in global conflict.

About the author

Stathis N. Kalyvas is Arnold Wolfers Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he directs the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence. He is the author of The Logic of Violence in Civil War (2006) and The Rise of Christian Democracy in Europe (1996).

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University, where he also serves as Henry R. Luce Director of the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. His most recent books are Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror (2007), The Flight From Reality in the Human Sciences (2005), and Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight Over Taxing Inherited Wealth (with Michael Graetz, 2006).

Tarek Masoud is an assistant professor of public policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. His current research focuses on the politics of religion in the Islamic world, particularly the ways in which Islamist parties shape - and are shaped by - their political environments. He is the co-editor of Problems and Methods in the Study of Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2004), and Order, Conflict, and Violence (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He is the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation and the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation. He is a graduate of Brown and Yale Universities.