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War By Other Means: The Fate of Civilians in Armed Conflict
Unformatted Document Text:  “WAR BY OTHER MEANS”: THE FATE OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT Alexander B. Downes Assistant Professor Department of Political Science Duke University 301A Perkins Library Durham, NC 27708 (919) 688-2225 ## email not listed ## * Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1-September 4, 2005. Copyright by the American Political Science Association. * If—as Carl von Clausewitz famously argued—war is “a continuation of political intercourse, carried on with other means,” then the killing of noncombatants in war is often the continuation of war by other means. Historically, civilians have comprised half of all war deaths, the result of being targeted intentionally by belligerents, killed by the side-effects of weapons aimed at military targets, victimized by famine stemming from the destruction or confiscation of crops and food by marauding soldiers, or sickened by the inevitable outbreaks of disease that follow the marches of large armies. In the twentieth century alone, over 50 million noncombatants perished from war-related causes, a figure that comprises about 60 percent of all deaths from warfare in that time period (Eckhardt 1989, 90). Given that killing noncombatants is widely believed to be ineffective for achieving states’ goals—and perhaps even counterproductive because it inspires greater resistance in the target— the frequency with which civilians find themselves in belligerents’ cross-hairs is puzzling. One recent study, for example, argues that terrorizing civilians in war is self-defeating: “the nation or faction that resorts to warfare against civilians most quickly, most often, and most viciously is the nation or faction most likely to see its interests frustrated and, in many cases, its existence 1

Authors: Downes, Alexander.
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“WAR BY OTHER MEANS”:
THE FATE OF CIVILIANS IN ARMED CONFLICT
Alexander B. Downes
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Duke University
301A Perkins Library
Durham, NC 27708
(919) 688-2225
## email not listed ##
*
Prepared for delivery at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
September 1-September 4, 2005. Copyright by the American Political Science Association.
*
If—as Carl von Clausewitz famously argued—war is “a continuation of political intercourse,
carried on with other means,” then the killing of noncombatants in war is often the continuation
of war by other means. Historically, civilians have comprised half of all war deaths, the result of
being targeted intentionally by belligerents, killed by the side-effects of weapons aimed at
military targets, victimized by famine stemming from the destruction or confiscation of crops
and food by marauding soldiers, or sickened by the inevitable outbreaks of disease that follow
the marches of large armies. In the twentieth century alone, over 50 million noncombatants
perished from war-related causes, a figure that comprises about 60 percent of all deaths from
warfare in that time period (Eckhardt 1989, 90).
Given that killing noncombatants is widely believed to be ineffective for achieving states’
goals—and perhaps even counterproductive because it inspires greater resistance in the target—
the frequency with which civilians find themselves in belligerents’ cross-hairs is puzzling. One
recent study, for example, argues that terrorizing civilians in war is self-defeating: “the nation or
faction that resorts to warfare against civilians most quickly, most often, and most viciously is
the nation or faction most likely to see its interests frustrated and, in many cases, its existence
1


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