Over the course of recorded history, the problem of violence has exerted an enormous pull on philosophy and science. What gives this problem its weight is undoubtedly its acute familiarity: all humans experience violence. Indeed, as Judith Butler has argued, to have a body is, by implication, to be exposed to the possibility of violence. To think about violence is therefore to think about one’s own embodied, vulnerable, human condition, and this can make the study of violence an unsettling experience. To be unsettled is not, of course, a bad thing: violence should unsettle us, for its pervasiveness and reach are deeply troubling. In thinking through this theme, the present issue of the ISRF Bulletin thus invites its readers to linger a while in the unsettling problem of violence.
