Macquarie University

Strategies of Political Violence - PICX313

One of the most pervasive contemporary security challenges is the threats to the state and its population from political violence emerging from within state borders. Internal sources of armed conflict—such as communal violence, subversion and insurgency—have significant implications for national, regional and global security, and are increasingly acknowledged to be the most important foreign policy challenges and threats in the world today. This unit examines the strategies which underpin the use of political violence by state and non-state actors, including coercion, co-optation, undercutting and concession. It will use a range of international case studies to examine the causal factors behind the campaigns of political violence perpetrated by states and non-state actors and the responses of targets. The unit complements PICX110 which looks at the dynamics of coercion, PICX111 that addresses non-traditional security challenges, and PICX113 understanding terrorism in the twenty-first century.

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