The Conundrum(s) of Political Violence

Abstract: The purpose of this review essay is not so much to dwell on the numerous virtues of Mathias Thaler’s Naming Violence and Elizabeth Frazer’s and Kimberly Hutchings’ Can Political Violence Ever be Justified?, but rather to enter into a critical discussion with the authors and to carve out some major points of disagreement. In both cases I am not entirely convinced by how the authors conceptualize potential responses to political violence. After discussing the two books in isolation from each other, the essay’s conclusion brings some of the previous arguments together and opens a space in which we can develop a theory of judging and responding to violence.

This content is restricted to site members. If you are an existing user, please login. New users may click here to subscribe.

Existing Users Log In
   


Contributors
About Christof Royer

Christof Royer holds a PhD in international relations from the University of St Andrews, an MLitt in international political theory from the University of St Andrews, an LLM degree in international law from the University of Reading and a Magister Juris (law) degree from the University of Vienna. His book Evil as a Crime against Humanity: Confronting Mass Atrocities in a Plural World has been published in the International Political Theory series (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021). Christof has published in academic journals such as CRISPP, Human Rights Review, Distinktion, Criminal Law and Philosophy, and Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.