Marielle Debos, Associate Professor in Political Science at University Paris Ouest Nanterre, will present the findings from her research on violence and state formation in Chad. Chad has become a key ally of France and the Western powers within the framework of the “war on terror” and is now viewed as a stable country despite its long history of armed rebellions. However, debates on the factors of stability and instability are in need of reframing. In her presentation, she will interrogate insidious forms of violence hidden by apparent stability and analyze what is happening in times and spaces that are no longer at war but in which violence has become a matter of routine. Exploring inter-war violence she will discuss how this violence cannot be reduced to a habitus of war that obstinately continues to hold sway but rather is the product of a specific mode of government and a specific economy.

(Photo credit : Reclaiming the Future, Flickr)