Siniša Malešević, Full Professor in the School of Sociology at University College Dublin, speaks at the second Ideas and Political Violence seminar.
Looking comparatively at the Irish Republican Army and the Bosnian Serb Army, Professor Malešević examines what motivates individuals to fight within the specific context of these two organized violent groups as well as what motivates combatants to fight more generally. Much of the ongoing debate within military sociology and military psychology has sought to answer this question through the narrow scope of military utility. Professor Malešević seeks to broaden this debate by looking at wider social and historical processes, with a focus on those involving coercive, ideological, and emotional power.