Killing Civilians in Civil War: The Rationale of Indiscriminate Violence
  • 2020/239 pages
  • A FirstForumPress Book
    Published in association with the Handa Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence, University of St Andrews

Killing Civilians in Civil War:

The Rationale of Indiscriminate Violence

Jürgen Brandsch
Hardcover: $89.95
ISBN: 978-1-62637-863-6
Ebook: $89.95
ISBN: 978-1-62637-906-0
Conventional wisdom tells us that targeting civilians in civil wars makes little sense as a combat strategy. Yet, the indiscriminate violence continues. Why?

To tackle this vexing question, Jürgen Brandsch looks closely at the on-the-ground impact of indiscriminate violence—and what he finds shows that there often is, in fact, a method to the madness. Making the provocative argument that slaughtering innocent civilians may be rational behavior on the part of the perpetrators, Brandsch provides an important piece in the puzzle of how to understand, and ultimately prevent, such atrocities.
Jürgen Brandsch is the head of the Project on Small Arms and Light Weapons Control at the Bonn International Center for Conversion.