Research Article

Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors

Volume: 2 Number: 1 June 30, 2026

Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors

Abstract

Starting off, any real academic work on civil war and political violence has to tackle what we actually mean by those terms. When ideas lack clear boundaries, studies become messy hard to repeat or build upon. The following pages dig into three linked areas shaping how researchers see internal wars. One path looks at why defining civil war stays controversial, showing how choices here ripple through both number crunching and deep case studies. Another angle shifts focus to groups outside state control, asking who counts as insurgents, rebels, armed bands, terror networks, or crime outfits and how each stand against governments or allies. Starting differently each time, this part steps into a well-known clash of ideas old versus new ways of understanding war. Instead of just adding points together, it probes a key question raised after the Cold War faded: are today’s internal battles something entirely fresh or simply older forms wearing modern clothes? Rather than treating labels as neutral boxes, the section shows they carry weight they guide who gets seen, how actions appear, and which solutions seem possible. Definitions aren’t background noise; they frame what counts, who matters, and where attention goes. By naming things like "civil war" or "combatant," choices get made choices shaping both knowledge and response. Noticing this shifts how one reads conflict not as fixed categories but as contested ground shaped by words used. Ends here.

Keywords

References

  1. Carey, Sabine C., Neil J. Mitchell, and Will Lowe. “States, the Security Sector, and the Monopoly of Violence: A New Database on Pro-Government Militias.” Journal of Peace Research 50, no. 2 (2013): 249–258. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343312464881.
  2. Cederman, Lars-Erik, and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch. “Introduction to Special Issue: ‘Disaggregating Civil War.’” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53, no. 4 (2009): 487–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002709336454. Collier, Paul. Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy. Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003.
  3. Collier, Paul, and Anke Hoeffler. “Greed and Grievance in Civil War.” Oxford Economic Papers 56, no. 4 (2004): 563–595. https://doi.org/10.1093/oep/gpf064.
  4. Cramer, Christopher. “Homo Economicus Goes to War: Methodological Individualism, Rational Choice and the Political Economy of War.” World Development 30, no. 11 (2002): 1845–1864.
  5. Della Porta, Donatella. Clandestine Political Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
  6. Fearon, James D., and David D. Laitin. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97, no. 1 (2003): 75–90.
  7. Galula, David. Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. New York: Praeger, 1964.
  8. Gleditsch, Nils Petter, Peter Wallensteen, Mikael Eriksson, Margareta Sollenberg, and Håvard Strand. “Armed Conflict 1946–2001: A New Dataset.” Journal of Peace Research 39, no. 5 (2002): 615–637. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343302039005007.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Comparative Law

Journal Section

Research Article

Publication Date

June 30, 2026

Submission Date

June 8, 2026

Acceptance Date

June 30, 2026

Published in Issue

Year 2026 Volume: 2 Number: 1

APA
Khairmohammad, S., & İnaç, H. (2026). Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.67310/eajcl.1966318
AMA
1.Khairmohammad S, İnaç H. Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. 2026;2(1). doi:10.67310/eajcl.1966318
Chicago
Khairmohammad, Shadan, and Hüsamettin İnaç. 2026. “Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2 (1). https://doi.org/10.67310/eajcl.1966318.
EndNote
Khairmohammad S, İnaç H (June 1, 2026) Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2 1
IEEE
[1]S. Khairmohammad and H. İnaç, “Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors”, Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 2, no. 1, June 2026, doi: 10.67310/eajcl.1966318.
ISNAD
Khairmohammad, Shadan - İnaç, Hüsamettin. “Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law 2/1 (June 1, 2026). https://doi.org/10.67310/eajcl.1966318.
JAMA
1.Khairmohammad S, İnaç H. Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. 2026;2. doi:10.67310/eajcl.1966318.
MLA
Khairmohammad, Shadan, and Hüsamettin İnaç. “Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors”. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 2, no. 1, June 2026, doi:10.67310/eajcl.1966318.
Vancouver
1.Shadan Khairmohammad, Hüsamettin İnaç. Conceptual Foundations: Defining Civil War, Political Violence, and Violent Nonstate Actors. Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law. 2026 Jun. 1;2(1). doi:10.67310/eajcl.1966318

Eurasian Journal of Comparative Law © 2024 (by Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi) is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0 (Creative Common Licence)