Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:00:01.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The concept of violence in international theory: a Double-Intent Account

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2017

Christopher J. Finlay
Christopher J. Finlay*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ability of international ethics and political theory to establish a genuinely critical standpoint from which to evaluate uses of armed force has been challenged by various lines of argument. On one, theorists question the narrow conception of violence on which analysis relies. Were they right, it would overturn two key assumptions: first, that violence is sufficiently distinctive to merit attention as a category separate from other modes of human harming; second, that it is troubling in a special way that makes acts of violence peculiarly hard to justify. This paper defends a narrow understanding of violence and a special ethics governing its use by arguing that a distinctive form of ‘Violent Agency’ is the factor uniting the category while partly accounting for the fearful connotations of the term. Violent Agency is defined first by a double intention (1) to inflict harm using a technique chosen (2) to eliminate or evade the target’s means of escaping it or defending against it. Second, the harms it aims at are destructive (as opposed to appropriative). The analysis offered connects the concept of violence to themes in international theory such as vulnerability, security, and domination, as well as the ethics of war.

Keywords

violencejust war theoryvulnerabilitynon-dominationrepublicanismfeminist international relations theory
Type
Original Papers
Information
International Theory , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , March 2017 , pp. 67 - 100
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1970. On Violence. New York: Harcourt.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 2006 [1963]. On Revolution. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Audi, Robert. 2009. “On the Meaning and Justification of Violence.” In Violence: a Philosophical Anthology, edited by Vittorio Bufacchi. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bellamy, Alex. 2006. Just Wars, from Cicero to Iraq. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Booth, Ken. 2007. A Theory of World Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Buchanan, Allen. 2013. “The Ethics of Revolution and its Implications for the Ethics of Intervention.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 41(4):291–323.Google Scholar
Bufacchi, Vittorio. 2005. “Two Concepts of Violence.” Political Studies Review 3:193–204.Google Scholar
Bufacchi, Vittorio. 2007. Violence and Social Justice. Basingstoke: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Bufacchi, Vittorio. ed. 2009. Violence: A Philosophical Anthology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Cavarero, Adriana. 2009. Horrorism: Naming Contemporary Violence. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Clausewitz, Carl von. 1993. On War, edited by Michael Howard, Peter Paret, and Bernard Brodie. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2013. The Vulnerable in International Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2015. Waging War: A New Philosophical Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Coady, C. A. J. 2008. Morality and Political Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coker, Christopher. 2004. The Future of War: The Re-Enchantment of War in the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Coker, Christopher. 2008. Ethics and War in the Twenty-First Century. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar
De Haan, Willem. 2008. “Violence as an Essentially Contested Concept.” In Violence in Europe: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, edited by Sophie Body-Gendrot, and Pieter Spierenburg. New York: Springer, 27–40.Google Scholar
Deudney, Daniel. 2007. Bounding Power: Republican Security Theory from the Polis to the Global Village. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fabre, Cécile. 2012. Cosmopolitan War. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 1980. The Wretched of the Earth, Translated by Constance Farrington. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Feinberg, Joel. 1984. Harm to Others: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fiala, Andrew. 2007. The Just War Myth: The Moral Illusions of War. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Finlay, Christopher J. 2009. “How To Do Things With the Word ‘Terrorist’.” Review of International Studies 35(4):751–774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finlay, Christopher J. 2015. Terrorism and the Right to Resist: A Theory of Just Revolutionary War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Galtung, Johann. 1969. “Violence, Peace and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research 6(3):167–191.Google Scholar
Gargarella, Roberto. 2007. “The Right of Resistance in Situations of Severe Deprivation.” In Freedom From Poverty as a Human Right, edited by Thomas Pogge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 359–375.Google Scholar
Garver, Newton. 2009. “What Violence Is.” In Violence: a Philosophical Anthology, edited by Vittorio Bufacchi. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Geras, Norman. 1989. “Our Morals: The Ethics of Revolution.” The Socialist Register 25:185–211.Google Scholar
Gross, Michael L. 2010. Moral Dilemmas of Modern War: Torture, Assassination, and Blackmail in an Age of Asymmetric Conflict. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gross, Michael L. 2015. The Ethics of Insurgency: A Critical Guide to Just Guerrilla Warfare. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hardt, Michael, and Negri, Antonio. 2009. Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Harris, John. 1980. Violence and Responsibility. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Holmes, Robert L. 1992. On War and Morality. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Honderich, Ted. 2003. Terrorism for Humanity: Inquiries in Political Philosophy. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Jacquette, Dale. 2013. “Violence as Intentionally Inflicting Forceful Harm.” Revue Internationale de Philosophie 67:293–322.Google Scholar
Jones, Adam. 2010. “Genocide and Mass Violence.” In Gender Matters in Global Politics: A Feminist Introduction to International Relations, edited by Laura Shepherd. Abingdon: Routledge, 127–147.Google Scholar
Kaldor, Mary. 2012. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, third edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Kochi, Tarik. 2009. The Other’s War: Recognition and the Violence of Ethics. Abingdon: Birkbeck Law Press.Google Scholar
Kraut, Richard. 2002. Aristotle: Political Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lavi, Shai. 2006. “The Use of Force Beyond the Liberal Imagination: Terror and Empire in Palestine, 1947.” Theoretical Inquiries in Law 7(1):198–228.Google Scholar
Lee, Steven. 1996. “Poverty and Violence.” Social Theory and Practice 22(1):67–82.Google Scholar
Linklater, Andrew. 2011. The Problem of Harm in World Politics: Theoretical Investigations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lippert-Rasmussen, Kasper. 2013. “Global Injustice and Redistributive Wars.” Law, Ethics and Philosophy 1:65–86.Google Scholar
Locke, John. 1988. Two Treatises of Government, edited by P Laslett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lovett, Frank. 2010. A General Theory of Domination and Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Luban, David. 1980. “Just War and Human Rights.” Philosophy and Public Affairs 9(2):160–181.Google Scholar
Madden Dempsey, Michelle. 2006. “What Counts as Domestic Violence? A Conceptual Analysis.” William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law 12(2):301–333.Google Scholar
Mandela, Nelson. 2002. No Easy Walk to Freedom. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Mbembe, Achille. 2003. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture 15(1):11–40.Google Scholar
McMahan, Jeff. 2009. Killing in War. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Monk, Ray. 1991. Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. London: Vintage.Google Scholar
Newey, Glen. 2013. “Unlike a Scotch Egg.” London Review of Books 35(23):22–24.Google Scholar
Nielsen, Kai. 1982. “Political Violence and Ideological Mystification.” Journal of Social Philosophy 13(2):25–33.Google Scholar
O’Callaghan, Ronan. 2013. “Secular Theology and Noble Sacrifice: The Ethics of Michael Walzer’s Just War Theory.” Review of International Studies 39:361–383.Google Scholar
Perry, Charner. 1970. “Violence – Visible and Invisible.” Ethics 81(1):1–21.Google Scholar
Pettit, Philip. 1997. Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pogge, Thomas. 2013. “Poverty and Violence.” Law, Ethics and Philosophy 1:87–111.Google Scholar
Rengger, Nicholas. 2013. Just War and the International Order: The Uncivil Condition in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rid, Thomas. 2012. “Cyber War Will Not Take Place.” Journal of Strategic Studies 35(1):5–32.Google Scholar
Rodin, David. 2002. War and Self-Defense. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Salmi, Jamil. 2009 [1993]. “The Different Categories of Violence.” In Violence: a Philosophical Anthology, edited by Vittorio Bufacchi. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sample, Ian. 2013. “Sarin: The Deadly History of the Nerve Agent Used in Syria.” The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/17/sarin-deadly-history-nerve-agent-syria-un. Accessed 13 December 2016.Google Scholar
Scarry, Elaine. 1985. The Body in Pain: the Making and Unmaking of the World. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Schnabel, Albrecht. 2008. “The Human Security Approach to Direct and Structural Violence, Appendix 2.” In The SIPRI Yearbook 2008: Armaments, Disarmament, and International Security. New York: Oxford University Press, 87–95.Google Scholar
Skinner, Quentin. 2002. Visions of Politics 1: Regarding Method. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Slomp, Gabriella. 2006. “Carl Schmitt’s Five Arguments Against Just War.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 19(3):435–447.Google Scholar
Statman, Daniel. 2008. “On the Success Condition for Legitimate Self-Defence.” Ethics 118:659–686.Google Scholar
Stone, John. 2007. “Technology and War: A Trinitarian Analysis.” Defense and Security Analysis 23:27–40.Google Scholar
Stone, John. 2013. “Cyber War Will Take Place!.” Journal of Strategic Studies 36(1):101–108.Google Scholar
Tickner, J. Ann. 1992. Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
True, Jacqui. 2012. The Political Economy of Violence Against Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Van der Linden, Harry. 2012. “On the Violence of Systemic Violence: A Critique of Slavoj Žižek.” Radical Philosophy Review 15:33–51.Google Scholar
Varon, Jeremy. 2004. Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Waldron, Jeremy. 2012. The Harm in Hate Speech. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Walzer, Michael. 1977. Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Weizman, Eyal. 2012. The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Williams, Howard. 2012. Kant and the End of War: A Critique of Just War Theory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Winter, Yves. 2012. “Violence and Visibility.” New Political Science 34(2):195–202.Google Scholar
Wolff, Robert Paul. 1969. “On Violence.” Journal of Philosophy 66(19):616–628.Google Scholar
Young, Iris Marion. 2011. Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Young, Robert. 2015. “Voluntary Euthanasia.” In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), edited by Edward N. Zalta. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/euthanasia-voluntary/.Google Scholar
Zehfuss, Maja. 2011. “Targeting: Precision and the Production of Ethics.” European Journal of International Relations 17:543–566.Google Scholar
Zeiton, Moez. 2011. “The Scars Left by Gaddafi.” The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/oct/21/gaddafi-death-symbolic-libya. Accessed 13 December 2016.Google Scholar
Žižek, Slavoj. 2008. Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. London: Profile Books.Google Scholar