Slavoj Žižek’s philosophy of violence compels us to look beyond the spectacle of bloodshed to the quiet, systemic and symbolic forces that normalise cruelty and uphold the ideological myths of power, peace, and humanitarianism.

Walter Benjamin’s 1921 Critique of Violence offers a radical lens through which to examine how law, power, and legitimacy are entwined with violence—revealing that the state’s claim to authority often rests not on justice but on force, and challenging us, as peace advocates, to confront not only acts of violence but the legal and symbolic structures that sustain them.