Week 16: War

There is no doubt that war has been one of the central forces shaping human history. Nearly all social institutions and social relations have been wrought by the experience and legacy of various wars. Yet, until quite recently, the mainstream sociologists were reluctant to engage with this phenomenon leaving the analysis of war to political science, international relations, and history. However, this has not always been the case, as the classics of social thought were interested in organized violence and have made significant contributions to the study of war, state and society (Malešević, 2010). More recently political and historical sociologists have questioned the dominance of the peace-centered under- standings of social reality emphasizing the centrality of war, violence, and coercion in the formation and reproduction of social orders (Centeno, 2002; Joas & Knöbl, 2013; Malešević, 2010, 2017; Mann, 1986, 2012; Wimmer, 2013). In this chapter, we chart and analyze some of these developments. The first part explores the main conceptual and definitional issues while the second part engages with the political sociology of war.