ABSTRACT
States are major agents in most wars, and yet in the popular imagination and mainstream theory, anarchy – the absence of the state – is associated indissolubly with war. The state is generally viewed as a source of social peace and, therefore, its destruction is taken to be extremely threatening. The irony is that, while anarchists are stereotyped as archetypally violent bomb-throwers, anarchists are among the most consistent critics of dominant forms of war. The stereotype of the anarchist bomb-thrower contrasts with the reality of state violence and anarchist involvement in anti-militarism.
