War/Political Violence

For this discussion about the impact of war and political violence on families, war is defined as violent, intergroup, societal-level conflict. It is "violence that is perpetrated by one set or group of people on another set or group of people who were often [but not always] strangers to each other before the conflict began" (Cairns 1996, p. 10). Other legal definitions of war are used by various government bodies, but those definitions often dismiss many areas of the world in which families are surrounded by political violence (e.g., Northern Ireland). War and political violence can occur between two or more states/nations or between groups (e.g., religious, ethnic) living in the same country or even in the same neighborhood or village.

Interpersonal violence (crimes against individuals, such as domestic violence, child abuse, or individual rapes) is not included in this definition of war. These behaviors often occur in areas of political violence, but the motivation behind such acts during war is a conflict between individuals as members of groups and involves societal-level issues usually related to one group wanting political power over the other.

War has changed over time. Throughout the late twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first century, "a new pattern of armed conflict has evolved, taking increasingly heavy tolls on communities and civilian populations" (Wessells 1998, p. 321). In fact, according to a study commissioned by the United Nations regarding the effects of war on children:

Distinctions between combatants and civilians disappear in battles fought from village to village or from street to street. In recent decades, the proportion of war victims who are civilians has leaped dramatically from 5 percent to over 90 percent. The struggles that claim more civilians than soldiers have been marked by horrific levels of violence and brutality. Any and all tactics are employed, from systematic rape, to scorched-earth tactics that destroy crops and poison wells, to ethnic cleansing and genocide (United Nations 1996, art. 24).

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many politically motivated violent conflicts were being waged around the globe—for example, the so-called war on terrorism led by the United States, the conflict in the West Bank between Israel and Palestine, the political violence in Indonesia and in the Congo, and the potential for a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan, to name a few. Families in all of these conflicts are affected by the violence around them.