ABSTRACT
In our daily lives, we often think of violence as an aberration – as the moment when the usual order of things breaks down, when the political and legal institutions that protect us recede or fail. When we read media reports of a senseless knife attack in a city street, for example, the violence appears as a rupture in the recognisable order of daily life. And yet, we are also aware of violence as an instrument of politics, we know that sometimes violent acts are carried out in the name of a cause or to achieve a political objective. When a decision is made to go to war, for example, the case is often made in terms of political objectives. So, why is it that some acts are considered to be senseless violence that is beyond comprehension, while others are treated as necessary and
legitimate acts in the pursuit of a better, more secure, more just world? How do we distinguish between politics and violence, and what are the political implications of such distinctions? What counts as violence?
