Political Violence

4 credits · Graduate

This graduate seminar is designed to introduce students to the comparative study of political violence. The course examines two broad themes through a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches. The first theme focuses on why individuals choose to rebel: When does violence become a strategy for resolving conflict? Why do individuals participate in violence? How is violence organized? The second theme focuses on how states choose to repress citizens: When are human rights violations committed? When does a state use violence over other strategies? What are the effects of state violence?