76 

BOOK REVIEW  
 

Misra Amalendu,  
 

Politics of Civil Wars: Conflict, Intervention and 

Resolution, 

 
Routledge, London and New York, 2008. 

 

Nina Wilén 

                                                 Researcher in Political Science 

Université Libre de Bruxelles,  

 

E-mail: Nina.Wilen@ulb.ac.be  

 

Amalendu Misra has written one of few single-volume works about the different aspects of 

civil wars. The book covers the different phases of civil wars, by following the ‘cycle’ of 

conflict, starting with causes, then conduct and finally the end of the wars. While the first 

part examines the start and the conduct of civil wars, the second part gives room for the 

analysis of intervention and conflict resolution. The list of contents follows the structure of 

the author’s own approach to how civil wars should be treated; “capable of going through the 

cycle of development, decay and eventual demise” (p.1).  

In his first chapter Misra guides the readers through the theories of civil wars, investigating 

the main actors, such as the state, the rebel and the individual, but also some of the causes, 

mailto:Nina.Wilen@ulb.ac.be


BOOK REVIEW of "Politics of Civil Wars: Conflicts, Intervention and Resolution" by Nina Wilen 

 
77 

including grievance and greed. Additional factors like identity, ethnicity and religion are 

thereafter added to the analysis after Misra had finally established that the causes of civil 

wars are limitless.  

 

The author takes on an in-depth perspective on the aspect of nationalism in the second 

chapter, by claiming that the level of nationalism determines the level of violence and conflict 

in a given state. Nationalism is according to Misra’s main argument; both able to unite and 

divide. It is also through this facet that he borders the issue of globalisation, emphasizing the 

radically different standpoints that might be taken in this regard from a nationalistic point of 

view.   

 

In the chapter with the intriguing title; “Erotics of violence”, an analysis of violence in civil 

wars is structured along themes such as logic, genocidal (genocide) and psychology of 

violence. It is also in this section that the author connects to the introduction, discussing the 

difference between new and old wars and making a rather bold statement that present-day 

civil wars lack both legitimacy and politics (p.59). Although Misra does defend this argument 

by some examples, the lack of an exhaustive analysis of the actual causes behind this change, 

which for the author seems so obvious, leaves the reader without a strong conviction. Though 

a plausible explanation leans towards a change in the mentality of the population, this aspect 

is never investigated.  

 

The second part of the book examines the different features of intervention and conflict 

resolution. It is in these chapters that the author’s own experience of working in conflict 

affected areas comes most to its right, as the empirical examples enriches the analyses with 

their clarity and pertinence. It is also in these parts that the author’s own voice is heard 

through the many references and Misra’s contribution to the study of civil wars becomes 

evident.  

 

In the chapter discussing intervention the reader is led through the many obstacles and 

motivations behind the decision to intervene, touching upon the principle of sovereignty and 

the never-ending debate about selective interventions and self-interest. While highlighting 

many risks with intervention, in particular preventive intervention, the author adopts the 

standpoint that the risk of spill-over effect is one of the strongest arguments for intervention.  

 

Misra goes on to portray the difficulties associated with rebuilding a nation or a state, or 

both, as he sees them as intrinsically linked; differing between the soft (nation building) and 

the hard (state institutions) aspects of state construction. He then compares two actors’ 

records in state-building; the US and the UN and concludes that even though the US has had 



BOOK REVIEW of "Politics of Civil Wars: Conflicts, Intervention and Resolution" by Nina Wilen 

 
78 

two success stories in Germany and Japan, the conditions for state-building are no longer the 

same and the UN stands as the more successful of the two. A more inclusive examination of 

exactly where the UN has succeeded would have been suitable here for a more balanced 

comparison.  

 

In his last chapters, the author depicts the difficulties with both reconciliation and resolution 

of civil wars. After having explored different strategies such as pardon, punishment and 

amnesia for reconciliation and resolution approaches, the general conclusion is that there is 

no such thing as one overarching answer to all civil wars; each conflict needs a tailor-made 

solution.   

 

Overall, Amalendu Misra delivers an excellent introduction to the study of civil wars. It offers 

both a wide overview of the different aspects and phases of the conflicts as well as thorough 

analyses of certain well-chosen issues. In particular, the many different case studies make the 

work easy to read while also lifting the quality of the book above that of a typical textbook. 

The complexity of the work is however also one of its weaknesses. The broad perspective 

occasionally leads to the author’s own contribution getting lost in the many references. 

Rather all-inclusive conclusions are also somewhat disappointing as few alternatives are 

rejected or clearly embraced.