ABSTRACT
This chapter explores why and when non-state activism becomes violent and empirically discusses the factors that can explain the strategy of contention of Southeast Asian civil society. Research on armed groups and social movements has concluded that non-state actors are prone to violence if this helps them secure funding, if other means have been unsuccessful, and/or when faced with violent repression. In contemporary Southeast Asia, the countries with the most visible violent non-state actors are Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. These countries also have a vibrant nonviolent civil society and occasionally repressive regimes, but the chapter finds that it is rare that organisations shift between violent and nonviolent strategies. Instead, the chapter identifies some incidences of collaboration across the violent/nonviolent divide, which seems to be more common in response to increased state repression. Furthermore, it also finds that parts of the state apparatus have encouraged and supported several cases of violent activism and uncivil society, indicating the need for further disaggregated study of the networks behind violent contentious politics.
