Political Violence
PhD Comprehensive Exam Reading List
The following readings are in addition to those required by the core concentration courses.
1. Studying Political Violence
Kalyvas, Stathis. (2003). The Ontology of Political Violence. Perspectives on Politics, 1:3, pp.
475-494.
Galtung, Johan. (1969). Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, 6:3,
pp. 167-191.
Tilly, Charles. (1998, Fall). Contentious conversation. Social Research, 65:3.
Tilly, Charles. (2004). Terror, Terrorism, Terrorists. Sociological Theory, 22:1.
Davenport, Christian. (2007). State repression and political order. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci., 10, pp.
1-23.
Geertz, Clifford. (1973). The Integrative Revolution: Primordial Sentiments & Civil Politics in
the New States. In The Interpretation of Cultures (pp. 255-310). New York: Basic Books.
Mazower, Mark. (2002). Violence and the State in the Twentieth Century. American Historical
Review, 107:4, pp. 1158-1178.
2. States, Violence & Human Rights
Gurr, Ted Robert. (1988). War, Revolution, and the Growth of the Coercive State. Comparative
Political Studies, 21, pp. 45-65.
Earl, Jennifer. (2003). Tanks, Tear Gas and Taxes: Toward a Theory of Movement Repression.
Sociological Theory, 21:1, pp. 44-68.
Ron, James. (1997). Varying methods of state violence. International Organization, 51:2, pp.
275-300.
Pion-Berlin, David & Lopez, George A. (1991). Of Victims and Executioners: Argentine State
Terror, 1975-1979. International Studies Quarterly, pp. 63-86.
Poe, Steven C. & Tate, Neal C. (1994). Repression of Human Rights to Personal Integrity in the
1980s: A Global Analysis. American Political Science Review, 88:8, pp. 53-72.
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McCormick, James M. & Mitchell, Neil J. (1997). Human rights violations, umbrella concepts,
and empirical analysis. World Politics, 49:04, pp. 510-525.
Rejali, Darius. (2007). Torture and Democracy (chap. 2, pp. 11-60). Princeton, University Press.
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce. et al. (2003). The Logic of Political Survival (pp. 1-75). Cambridge:
MIT Press.
Fein, Helen. (1995). More Murder in the Middle: Life-Integrity Violations and Democracy in the
World. Human Rights Quarterly, 17, pp. 170-191.
Hafner-Burton, Emilie. (2008). Sticks and Stones: Naming and Shaming the Human Rights
Enforcement Problem. International Organization, 62:4, pp. 689–716.
Harff, Barbara. (2003). No Lessons Learned from the Holocaust? Assessing Risks of Genocide
and Political Mass Murder since 1955. American Political Science Review, 97:1, pp. 57-73.
Downes, Alexander B. (2006). Desperate Times, Desperate Measures: The Causes of Civilian
Victimization in War. International Security, 30:4, pp. 152-195.
Tilly, Charles. (2003). The Politics of Collective Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mason, T. David & Krane, A. Dale. (1989, June). The Political Economy of Death Squads:
Toward a Theory of the Impact of State-Sanctioned Terror. International Studies Quarterly,
33:2, pp. 175-198.
Davenport, Christian. (2005). Understanding Covert Repressive Action: The Case of the U.S.
Government against the Republic of New Africa. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 49:1, pp. 120140.
3. Weak States and State Building
Rotberg, Robert I. (2004). Chapter 1: The Failure and Collapse of Nation-States. In When States
Fail: Causes and Consequences (pp. 1-30). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tilly, Charles. (1975). Reflections on the History of European State-Making. In Charles Tilly,
(Ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (pp. 3-83). Princeton: Princeton
University Press.
Tilly, Charles. (1975). Western State-Making and Theories of Political Transformation. In
Charles Tilly, (Ed.), The Formation of National States in Western Europe (pp. 3-83). Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
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Reno, William. (1999). Warlord Politics in African States (pp. 147-182). Boulder: Lynne
Rienner.
Tilly, Charles. (2002). Chapter 4: War Making and State Making as Organized Crime. In
Catherine Bateman, (Ed.), Violence: A Reader (pp. 35-60). New York University Press.
Tilly, Charles. (1993). Coercion Capital and European States 990 – 1992. London: WileyBlackwell.
Jackson, Robert & Rosberg, Carl. (1982, Oct.). Why Africa’s Weak States Persist. World
Politics, 35:1, pp. 1-24.
Herbst, Jeffery. (2000). States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and
Control. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bates, Robert H. (2008). When Things Fall Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thies, Cameron G. (2004, March). State Building, Interstate and Intrastate Rivalry: A Study of
Post-Colonial Developing Country Extractive Efforts, 1975-2000. International Studies
Quarterly, 48:1, pp. 53-72.
Hironaka, Ann. (2005). Neverending Wars: the International Community, Weak States, and the
Perpetuation of Civil War. Harvard University Press.
Atzili, Boaz. (2011). Good Fences, Bad Neighbors: Border Fixity and International Conflict.
University of Chicago Press.
Singer, Peter. (2007). Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. Cornell
University Press.
Ayoob, Mohammed. (1995). The Third World Security Predicament: State Making, Regional
Conflict and the International System. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
4. Why Rebel?
Gurr, Ted Robert. (1970). Why Men Rebel. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Gaventa, John. (1980). Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalaichan Valley. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. (2003). Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. New
York: Cambridge.
Goodwin, Jeff. (2001). No Other Way Out: States & Revolutionary Movements, 1945-1991.
CUP.
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Humphreys, Macartan & Weinstein, Jeremy M. (2008). Who Rebels? The Determinants of
Participation in Civil War. American Journal of Political Science, 52:2, pp. 436–455.
Granovetter, Mark. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, pp.
1360-80.
Kuran, Timur. (1991). Now Out of Never: The Element of Surprise in the East European
Revolution of 1989. World Politics, 44, pp. 7-48.
Muller, Edward N. & Seligson, Mitchell A. (1987). Inequality and Insurgency. American
Political Science Review, 81, pp. 425-452.
Moore, Will H. (1995). Rational rebels: overcoming the free-rider problem. Political Research
Quarterly, 48:2, pp. 417-454.
Snyder, David & Tilly, Charles. (1972). Hardship and Collective Violence. American
Sociological Review, 37:5, pp. 520-532.
Lichbach, Mark. (1994). Rethinking Rationality and Rebellion: Theories of Collective Action
and Problems of Collective Dissent. Rationality and Society, 6:1, pp. 8-39.
Lyall, Jason. (2009). Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from
Chechnya. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 53:3, pp. 331-362.
5. Nonviolent Resistance
Scott, James. (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New
Haven: Yale University Press.
Stephan, Maria J. & Chenoweth, Erica. (2008). Why civil resistance works: The strategic logic
of nonviolent conflict. International Security, 33:1, pp. 7-44.
Sharp, Gene. (1959). The Meanings of Non-Violence: A Typology (Revised). Journal of Conflict
Resolution, 3:1, pp. 41-66.
Schock, Kurt. (2004). Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Pearlman, Wendy. (2011). Violence, Nonviolence and the Palestinian National Movement.
Cambridge University Press.
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6. Civil War
Kalyvas, Stathis N. (2006). The Logic of Violence in Civil War (Chapters 1-7). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Weinstein, Jeremy. (2007). Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York:
Cambridge University Press.
Sambanis, Nicholas. (2004). What Is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an
Operational Definition. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 48:6, pp. 814-858.
Walter, Barbara. (1997). The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement. International
Organization, 51:3, pp. 335-364.
Wood, Elisabeth. (2006). Variation in Sexual Violence during War. Politics & Society, 34, pp.
307.
Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D. (2003). Ethnicity, insurgency, and civil war. American
political science review, 97:01, pp. 75-90.
Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke. (2004). Greed and grievance in civil war. Oxford economic
papers, 56:4, pp. 563-595.
Young, Joseph K. (2012). Repression, Dissent, and the Onset of Civil War. Political Research
Quarterly, 20:10, pp. 1-17.
7. Ethnic Conflict
Fearon, James D. & Laitin, David D. (1996). Explaining Interethnic Cooperation. The American
Political Science Review, 90:4, pp. 715-735.
Horowitz, Donald L. (1985). Ethnic Groups in Conflict (Chapter 1). Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Posen, Barry. (1993). The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict. Survival, 35:1, pp. 27-47.
Kaufmann, Chaim. (1996). Where All Else Fails: Ethnic Population Transfers and Partition in
the Twentieth Century. International Security, 20:4, pp. 136-175.
Brubaker, Rogers & Laitin, David. (1998). Ethnic and Nationalist Violence. Annual Review of
Sociology, 24, pp. 423-52.
Mueller, John. (2000). The Banality of Ethnic War. International Security, 25:1, pp. 42-70.
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Kaldor, Mary. (2012). New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 3rd Ed. (pp. 7193). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Gallaher, Carolyn. (2007). After the Peace: Loyalist Paramilitaries in Post-Accord Northern
Ireland. Cornell University Press.
King, Charles. (2001). The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia’s Unrecognized
States. World Politics, 53:4, pp. 524-552.
LeBas, Adrienne. (2006). Polarization as Craft: Party Formation & State Violence in Zimbabwe.
Comparative Politics, 38:4.
Varshney, Ashutosh. (2001). Ethnicity Conflict and Civil Society: India and Beyond. World
Politics, 53:3, pp. 362-398
Snyder, Jack & Ballentine, Karen. (1996). Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas.
International Security, 21:2, pp. 5-40.
Appadarai, Arjun. (2002). Dead Certainty: Ethnic Violence in an Era of Globalization.
Development and Change, 29:4, pp. 905-925.
8. Natural Resources and Conflict
Ross, Michael. How Do Natural Resources Influence Civil War? Evidence from Thirteen Cases.
International Organization, 58:1, pp. 35-67.
Hendrix, Cullen S. & Glaser, Sarah M. (2007). Trends and Triggers: Climate, climate change,
and civil conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political Geography, 26, pp. 695-715
Collier, Paul & Hoeffler, Anke. (2005). Resource Rents, Governance, and Conflict. Journal of
Conflict Resolution, 49:4, pp. 625-633.
Le Billon, Philip. (2012). Wars of Plunder: Conflicts, Profits and the Politics of Resources.
Simultaneous publication by Hurst Press & Columbia University Press.
Miguel, Edward. (2005). Poverty and witch killing. The Review of Economic Studies, 72:4, pp.
1153-1172.
Kahl, Colin. (2006). States, Scarcity & Civil Strife in the Developing World (Chapters 1 and 2).
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
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9. Terrorism
Pape, Robert A. (2003). The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. American Political Science
Review, 97:3, pp. 343-361.
Lake, David. (2002). Rational Extremism: Understanding Terrorism in the Twenty First Century.
International Organization, 56:1, pp. 15-29.
Juergensmeyer, Mark. (2001). Terror in the Mind of God (Chapters 1 and 11). University of
California Press.
Crenshaw, Martha. (2000). The Psychology of Terrorism: An Agenda for the Twenty First
Century. Political Psychology, 20:2, pp. 405-420.
Kydd, Andrew. & Walter, Barbara. (2006). The Strategies of Terrorism. International Security,
56:2, pp. 49-80.
Crenshaw, Martha. (1981). The Causes of Terrorism. Comparative Politics, 13:4, pp. 379-399.
Abrams, Max. (2008). What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism.
International Security, 32:4, pp. 78-105.
Young, Joseph K. & Findley, Mike. (2011). Promise and Pitfalls of Terrorism Research.
International Studies Review, 13:3, pp. 411-431.
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