This seminar is devoted to understanding (1) forms of political violence other than interstate war and (2) how policy makers can (and sometimes cannot) take action to ameliorate the threat from non-state violence. Course requires careful reading of 1-2 policy statements and 2-3 moderately technical articles each week on topics including: terrorism, the causes of civil war, the duration and cessation of civil war, the transition from violence to democracy, violence and social order, economic development and violence, the institutional structure of insurgent organizations, government violence and expropriation, revolution, and ethnic violence.