PROJECT
This document does not aim to get a consensus between the hundreds of definitions that are used. This document wants to offer a basic conceptual framework in order to conduct the project research in the most efficient way possible.
Political Violence
WHEN INDIVIDUALS OR GROUPS RESORT TO VIOLENCE TO ATTAIN CHANGE OF A POLITICAL NATURE, ONE SPEAKS OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE.
As Van den Haag established, “violence only becomes political when used instrumentally to influence or control the distribution of power and the future actions of people”. Individual violent acts are political when it has such social claims; group violence is at all times political to all intents and purposes (Van den Haag, 1972: 60-61). The sociologist Buijs focused on defining and elaborating upon three central aspects of political violence that can be used to obtain a typology: “the instruments that are used, the aims that the perpetrators aspire to, and the effects that are brought about” (Buijs, 2001: 9).
POLITICAL VIOLENCE IS A BROAD CONCEPT THAT WORKS FROM CITIZENS TO STATES, BUT FROM STATES TO CITIZENS TOO. BECAUSE OF THAT WE CAN TALK ABOUT (SCHMID, 2011):
State political violence:
Non state actors:
Insurgency
A GENERAL OVERARCHING CONCEPT THAT REFERS TO A CONFLICT BETWEEN A GOVERNMENT AND AN OUT GROUP OR OPPONENT IN WHICH THE LATTER USES BOTH POLITICAL RESOURCES AND VIOLENCE TO CHANGE, REFORMULATE, OR UPHOLD THE LEGITIMACY OF ONE OR MORE OF FOUR KEY ASPECTS OF POLITICS (O´NEILL, 2002).
These aspects of politics are:
“(1) The integrity of the borders and composition of the nation state, (2) the political system, (3), the authorities in power, and (4) the policies that determine who gets what in societies”(O’Neill, 2002, as cited in Taber, 2002: viii).
Insurgent activity is a form of “movement – a political effort with a specific aim”.
Later O’Neill gives his revision of the term insurgency:
“Insurgency may be defined as a struggle between a non-ruling group and the ruling authorities in which the non-ruling group consciously uses political resources (e.g., organizational expertise, propaganda, and demonstrations) and violence to destroy, reformulate, or sustain the basis of legitimacy of one or more aspects of politics” (O’Neill, 2005).
Department of Defence Joint Publication (JP) 1-02, used in counterinsurgency doctrine, is still based on the dominant American thinking that insurgencies are revolutionary movements. Hence, JP 1-02 defines the term insurgency as:
“An organized movement aimed at the overthrow of a constituted government through the use of subversion and armed conflict” (Department of Defence, 2004).
In his paper, The Basics of Counterinsurgency, R. Scott Moore argues that this characterization has changed little over the past several decades, and fails to reflect the wider scope and complexity of insurgencies today, especially their protracted and transnational nature.
Moore states the term insurgency is used interchangeably and imprecisely with “irregular warfare, unconventional warfare, revolutionary warfare, guerrilla warfare and even terrorism” (Moore, 2007).
Moore states that an insurgency is “a group that seeks radical change of the existing political or social order through the use of violence and political upheaval” (Moore, 2007). It employs terrorism as one of the means to achieve its objectives. Terrorism is not, however, the primary focus of insurgent movements. Insurgencies focus more on their country’s political, economic and social elements, which, Moore explains, are at the “heart of the conflict, both its causes and its effects” (Moore, 2007). Based on his understanding of insurgencies, Moore offers the following expanded and refined definition of the term:
“An insurgency is a protracted violent conflict in which one or more groups seek to overthrow or fundamentally change the political or social order in a state or region through the use of sustained violence, subversion, social disruption, and political action” (Moore, 2007).
Means of action:
To consult the full methodology, please download the document below.
transversalbridgesframework.pdf
