The Production and Control of Opportunistic Violence

This chapter shifts the focus of analysis from violence committed professionally to violence that soldiers commit opportunistically. It defines “opportunistic violence” as intentional harm inflicted by combatants that is not planned, ordered, or authorized by military superiors. It also explains how opportunistic violence is carried out by combatants for their own benefit rather than for the benefit of the military organization. The chapter outlines the functions of opportunistic violence that are diverse and include violence for instrumental purposes such as personal enrichment. It describes violence committed for social posturing or due to peer pressure and violence with no apparent purpose that stems from emotional impulses or arbitrary drives. It draws initial parallels between the Israeli case and other contemporaneous cases of counterinsurgency that can illustrate how insights from Israel can improve the understanding of political violence elsewhere.