Over the course of Hilary Term (January to March) and Trinity Term 2017 (April to June), the Department of Politics and International Relations is convening a new seminar series on Ideas and Political Violence.
This series has been recorded and is now available in its entirety, along with an introduction from convenors Elizabeth Frazer and Jonathan Leader Maynard, explaining why they chose this topic, which parts of the series they found particularly interesting, and where they hope it will go in future.
The relationship between ideas and political violence is a key interdisciplinary interest of modern academia, and this seminar series seeks to capitalise on the expanding wave of new scholarship, bringing this into the DPIR’s research community and adding momentum to it by providing a forum for discussion between academic staff, graduate students, and visiting speakers on cutting-edge research work.
Roddy Brett (St Andrews) specialises in a wide range of issues on Latin America, focusing on political violence. He talks about the various factors that can lead a group to political violence, such as a beliefs in the justness of one's own goal, the unjust nature of adversity, the overriding importance of the in-group's security, and particularly two factors: the victim status of the in-group and the inhumanity of the out-group.