TraCe Working Paper Series

Working Paper No. 1

Transformations of Political Violence? A Research Program

Political violence in its many forms – from riotous protests to war between states – remains ever-present and has immense moral and political implications. However, the overall development of political violence remains poorly understood. Examining existing research, authors identify three general positions: political violence has either declined, escalated, or taken different forms. They provide a basic framework to better group existing approaches, examine available findings, and to enable the design of further research to better understand the development of political violence.