Date of Award

Summer 8-31-2025

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Global Governance and Human Security

First Advisor

Karen Ross

Second Advisor

Samuel Barkin

Third Advisor

Evan Stewart

Abstract

Attacks on education have long been a feature of conflict, yet their strategic use by state and non-state actors remains underexamined. Despite global concern and growing documentation efforts by the international community, the motivations and patterns behind school attacks are not well studied. This project investigates the strategic use of such violence by Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian state and non-state armed actors during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and challenges the assumption that attacks on schools are simply collateral damage. Drawing from political and anti-civilian violence literature, this study situates schools as both symbolic and strategic geopolitical targets, targeted not only for their utility but also for their cultural and symbolic significance by both state and non-state armed actors. Through a mixed-methods approach that integrates descriptive statistical analysis and geospatial data visualization using ArcGIS, this dissertation analyzes a purposive sample of 123 school sites to explore how patterns of violence varied by geography, perpetrator, and technique during this war. Findings reveal clear patterns in the type and intensity of violence, varying by perpetrator group, municipality, and proximity to mass grave sites. These results support the argument that schools served not just as passive sites of destruction, but as active instruments in campaigns of ethnic and political violence. This project addresses a critical gap in academic literature and engages with the legal and normative frameworks of international humanitarian law (IHL) exposing significant gaps in how schools are protected during armed conflict. While hospitals and religious sites benefit from consistent protections under IHL, schools are protected only when civilians are present. This conditionality leaves schools vulnerable to military use and targeted destruction and presents accountability loopholes for those seeking to destroy community and generational acquisitions of human capital.

Comments

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