Friend or Foe

Stathis N. Kalyvas, author of The Logic of Violence in Civil War:
Ethnic violence—in particular mass displacement or ‘ethnic cleansing’—is both disturbing and puzzling. Hägerdal’s careful and innovative research in Lebanon offers important insights that help make sense of this vexing phenomenon.

Amaney A. Jamal, author of Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy at All?:
Hägerdal has written an excellent book on the conditions that lead to indiscriminate ethnic violence during civil war. Using an impressive array of original statistical and qualitative information on Lebanon’s civil war, he convincingly argues that information asymmetries explain the variation in levels of violence. Where intelligence information is reliable, there is less violence, and when it is less reliable, there is more violence.

Laia Balcells, author of Rivalry and Revenge: The Politics of Violence During Civil War:
A must-read to fathom the dynamics of violence in the complex and multifaceted Lebanese civil war. In a rich and rigorous account, Hägerdal explains how local demographics and intelligence shaped incentives and opportunities for selective violence or ethnic cleansing. Using novel and granular data, he shows that wartime violence in Lebanon was not wanton, but rather followed a political cleansing logic.