Hosts:
Marius R. Busemeyer – Professor of Comparative Political Economy at the University of Konstanz and Speaker of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”.
Gabriele Spilker – Professor of International Politics and Global Inequality at the University of Konstanz and Co-Speaker of the Cluster.

Guest:
Anke Hoeffler – Professor of Development Research at the University of Konstanz and member of the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”. She is also a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2019. Her research focuses on economic development, conflict, and violence.

Episode Overview
What can be worse than war? In this episode, Marius R. Busemeyer and Gabriele Spilker speak with Anke Hoeffler about her new book “Worse Than War”, co-authored with James D. Fearon. Hoeffler argues that the violence most people experience does not take place on battlefields, but often at home: intimate partner violence, violence against children, homicide, assault, and suicide account for a major share of the global burden of violence. The conversation explores how such violence can be measured, why its costs are so unequally distributed, and which policies can help prevent it.

Episode Highlights

The “War at Home”

· While war dominates the news, many women and children experience violence in everyday life and behind closed doors.

· The most common form of violence against women globally is intimate partner violence. For children, it is physical punishment by parents.

· War can increase violence in society, but much interpersonal violence occurs independently of armed conflict.

Measuring the Costs of Violence

· Violence at home is difficult to measure because victims often do not report it to the police.

· Victimisation surveys ask people directly about specific acts of violence.

· Hoeffler distinguishes between tangible costs, such as healthcare and productivity losses, and intangible costs, such as suffering and welfare loss.

· The global cost of measurable violence is estimated at around 34 trillion US dollars per year — about 4,000 dollars per person.

What Can Be Done?

· Hoeffler argues that violence is not simply a matter of culture and can change through law, norms, and policy.

· Reducing access to weapons, especially firearms, can lower harm from homicide and suicide.

· Policies that reduce alcohol abuse can also reduce violence, particularly intimate partner violence and public assaults.

· External actors cannot impose change, but they can support local NGOs, social movements, and reform champions.

Links & Further Reading

More about the Cluster of Excellence “The Politics of Inequality”: www.exc.uni-konstanz.de/inequality

Further readings:

o   Hoeffler, A. and Fearon, J. D. (2026): Worse Than War. The Global Costs of Violence.Princeton University Press.

o   Hoeffler, A. (2018). Security and development: Shifting the focus to interpersonal violence. The Economics of Peace and Security Journal, 13(1). 

o   Hoeffler, A. (2017). What are the costs of violence?Politics, Philosophy & Economics ; pp. 422-445.

Contact: [email protected]

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