The logic of violence in civil war By analytically decoupling war and violence this book explores the causes and dynamics of violence in civil war. Against prevailing views that such violence is either the product of impenetrable madness or a simple way to achieve strategic objectives the book demonstrates that the logic of violence in civil war has much less to do with collective emotions ideologies cultures or greed and grievance than currently believed. Stathis Kalyvas distinguishes between indiscriminate and selective violence and specifies a novel theory of selective violence: it is jointly produced by political actors seeking information and individual noncombatants trying to avoid the worst but also grabbing what opportunities their predicament affords them. BOOK JACKET