Reinterpreting Political Violence in History

Abstract

Understanding the promises and challenges of historical research on political violence and the process of history-writing has not always been a strength of theoretical literature on political violence. While the literature on civil wars has stronger traditions on studying historical events, terrorism studies, on the other hand, is famous for its excessive focus on current events. This means in effect that the views on the historical terrorist campaigns tend to be based on hopelessly outdated information. The problem is strongly visible e.g. in how the terrorism literature remains largely untouched by the recent transnational turn in the “1960s literature”. This Panel welcomes Papers approaching political violence from the point of view of memory and history(writing), e.g. politics of memory, historiography, new interpretations of historical violent conflicts and methodological questions (e.g. use of oral history interviews and archival material).

Title	Details
The role of the terrorist constituency in state-terrorist conflict. The case of the Irish hunger-strikers	View Paper Details
An Evolutionary Approach to Techniques of Political Violence	View Paper Details
Understanding Reintegration Experiences through the Life Histories of Former Jihadists	View Paper Details
A Case for (more) Historical Research on Terrorism	View Paper Details