Forms of martial power: Total wars, wars of pacification, and raid. Some observations on the typology of violence
Sociologus Beiheft/Supplement 1.1999:35-60
##The following remarks aim to further develop the concept of power by studying three types of violence, which I have named "martial power" ("kriegerische Aktionsmacht"): raid, war of pacification, and total war. I will begin with the concept of war (1) and then look at different types of war with a focus on wars of pacification and total wars (2-3). By asking if the German colonial wars in Africa were total wars, I will continue by outlining some important differences between wars of pacification and total wars (4) and with some comparative observations on raids (5). Finally, returning to the methodological and theoretical questions from the beginning I will give a few hints as to the place of my observations and conceptual efforts within a "theoretical ethnography" of violence which, in my view, is the methodological and theoretical core of a sociology of martial power.
The general theoretical aim of my considerations is to contribute to a paradigmatic change from a sociology of the causes of violence and war to a sociology of violence and war based on the theory of social action which starts with anthropological questions concerning basic human faculties and vital human dependencies. One of the reasons for this change of perspective is the idea that before studying the so-called "causes" of violence we must have a precise sociological understanding of what violence and war are.##
Keywords: war, violence, power, pacification, raid, action and violence
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