Definition

What is political violence?

Published 10 October 2026.

Political violence is the use or threat of physical force by organized actors to achieve or resist political goals. Researchers measure it as organized violence, in the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), and as political violence and demonstration events, in the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). This page is that research definition. It is not a guide to political-violence insurance or cover.

What is political violence?

In the datasets this map uses, political violence is organized force directed at a political end. It is not a synonym for every harmful act, and it is not one shared legal term.

ACLED’s codebook uses the phrase. The live codebook says:

Political violence is defined as the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation, or with distinct political effects. A political violence event is a single altercation where force is used by one or more groups toward a political end.

ACLED Codebook, accessed 10 October 2026. After dataset version 8, ACLED no longer releases formal versions and updates this page in place.

UCDP does not publish a sentence that begins “political violence is.” Its definitions page says the three categories below “are mutually exclusive and can be aggregated as ‘organized violence’” and “share the same intensity cut-off for inclusion – 25 fatalities in a calendar year.” An event in the UCDP Georeferenced Event Dataset is:

An incident where armed force was used by an organized actor against another organized actor, or against civilians, resulting in at least 1 direct death at a specific location and a specific date.

Stina Högbladh, “UCDP GED Codebook version 26.1” (2026), section 2, PDF. The “organized violence” sentence is from the UCDP definitions page, which has no version number. Both accessed 10 October 2026.

The same codebook limits the focus to “consciously conducted and planned political campaigns rather than spontaneous violence.” The opening sentence, which includes the threat of force, is wider than either quotation.

What are the types of political violence?

UCDP uses three categories of organized violence, and ACLED uses six event types. The lists are not interchangeable, and this page does not rank the datasets.

State-based, non-state, and one-sided violence

Appendix 1 of UCDP GED codebook version 26.1 (Högbladh, 2026) defines the three categories. Each “25” below is that inclusion threshold, not a toll.

• State-based armed conflict is “a contested incompatibility that concerns government and/or territory where the use of armed force between two parties, of which at least one is the government of a state, results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in a calendar year.”
• Non-state conflict is “the use of armed force between two organized armed groups, neither of which is the government of a state, which results in at least 25 battle-related deaths in a year.”
• One-sided violence is “the use of armed force by the government of a state or by a formally organized group against civilians which results in at least 25 deaths. Extrajudicial killings in custody are excluded.”

Högbladh, UCDP GED Codebook version 26.1 (2026), Appendix 1. Accessed 10 October 2026.

The unversioned definitions page instead calls one-sided violence “the deliberate use of armed force” and excludes “extrajudicial killings in government facilities.” Where the words differ, codebook 26.1 is the dataset rule. The threshold includes a dyad or actor for that year; it is not a count of people killed.

ACLED’s event types

The ACLED codebook “currently records six event types and 25 sub-event types, both violent and non-violent,” under three disorder types: Political violence, Demonstrations, and Strategic developments. In the codebook’s words:

• Battles — “a violent interaction between two organized armed groups at a particular time and location.” “There is no fatality minimum necessary for inclusion.”
• Explosions/Remote violence — “incidents in which one side uses weapon types that, by their nature, are at range and widely destructive.”
• Violence against civilians — “violent events where an organized armed group inflicts violence upon unarmed non-combatants.”
• Protests — “an in-person public demonstration of three or more participants in which the participants do not engage in violence, though violence may be used against them.”
• Riots — “violent events where demonstrators or mobs of three or more engage in violent or destructive acts.”
• Strategic developments — activity “not recorded as Political violence or Demonstrations events, yet may trigger future events or contribute to political dynamics,” and “not collected and recorded in the same cross-comparable fashion as Political violence and Demonstration events.”

In the codebook table, Battles, Explosions/Remote violence, Violence against civilians, and Mob violence are disorder type Political violence. Peaceful protest, Protest with intervention, and Violent demonstration are Demonstrations. Excessive force against protesters is both. Strategic developments are their own disorder type. ACLED “does not predefine broader aggregate categories of events, like wars, conflicts, operations, campaigns, or movements.”

ACLED Codebook, event types and Table 2, accessed 10 October 2026. Disorder types follow that table’s row spans.

How this map labels them

A country’s “primary violence type” on this site is a display label. How to read the map says it is inferred from which UCDP flags are active, and that it is not a codebook field. Risk bands are labels this publication derives to sort the watchlist. They are not ranks from ACLED’s Conflict Index.

Is political violence the same as terrorism?

No. Terrorism is one form of political violence, defined differently by different bodies, and not all political violence is terrorism.

United States law defines domestic terrorism, not “political violence.” 18 U.S.C. § 2331(5) says “domestic terrorism” means activities that “involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State,” that “appear to be intended” to “intimidate or coerce a civilian population,” “to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion,” or “to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping,” and that “occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” A state-based conflict in the UCDP sense can fail that test. ACLED does not apply the label either: it “does not categorize clusters or campaigns of events into categories of state or non-state operations, terrorism, insurgency, etc.”

The Institute for Economics & Peace Global Terrorism Index scores impact from incidents, fatalities, injuries, and hostages (2025 methodology appendix; note of 4 March 2026). Those pages do not define terrorism, so none is quoted. An index score is not an ACLED rank or a UCDP total.

Crime is a third line. ACLED’s own footnote says it “includes organized criminal violence as political violence when it challenges safety, security, and territorial control within a state.” Force with no political purpose and without that effect is outside the definition. This page classifies no particular incident.

Is a protest political violence?

A peaceful protest is not political violence. ACLED codes it as a demonstration.

A Protests event is “an in-person public demonstration of three or more participants in which the participants do not engage in violence, though violence may be used against them.” Peaceful protest is disorder type Demonstrations. A demonstration event, beside the political-violence definition, is “an in-person public gathering of three or more people advocating for a shared cause.”

Violence changes the code. Riots are “violent events where demonstrators or mobs of three or more engage in violent or destructive acts.” Violent demonstration stays under Demonstrations. Mob violence is Political violence. Excessive force against protesters is coded as both. UCDP’s categories are not a protest dataset: they require organized actors and the thresholds above, which a peaceful march does not meet.

How do researchers measure political violence?

They record events, or they record conflicts and actors that cross a fatality threshold. Those are not two counts of one thing.

UCDP records an event only after at least one direct death at a known place and date, and a case enters the annual datasets only at 25 deaths in a calendar year. ACLED has no fatality minimum and also records protests, riots, and some non-violent strategic developments. The unit is the event for ACLED and the dyad or actor for UCDP, so the counts differ by design. This page does not rank the datasets or publish a toll. How the designs diverge, including the Council on Foreign Relations tracker, is set out in the comparison of ACLED, UCDP, and CFR.

How to use this map for it

The map is a country watchlist, not an event feed. Read how to read the map before treating a color or a “primary violence type” as an ACLED or UCDP measurement, and use methodology for which fields are imported or derived. About covers citation. Seed figures on the map are illustrative rounded placeholders. Do not add them up and call the sum a global death toll.

Diplomacy around the wars this map is built to watch — negotiations, ceasefires, and the political track beside the fighting — is covered by Foreign Diplomacy’s regional conflicts desk, not by this definition.

Short answers

Political violence, here, is organized force used toward a political goal. ACLED: “the use of force by a group with a political purpose or motivation, or with distinct political effects.” UCDP aggregates three categories as organized violence. In codebook version 26.1 each is included only after 25 fatalities in a calendar year: state-based, a government fighting over government or territory; non-state, organized groups fighting with no government as a party; one-sided, a government or formally organized group using armed force against civilians, excluding extrajudicial killings in custody.

Terrorism is narrower. 18 U.S.C. § 2331(5) defines domestic terrorism as dangerous criminal acts inside the United States that appear intended to intimidate a population or coerce a government. A peaceful protest is an ACLED demonstration, not political violence.

Sources

All accessed 10 October 2026. Stina Högbladh, UCDP GED Codebook version 26.1 (2026); UCDP definitions (no version number on the page) and the download center; ACLED Codebook (no formal version after dataset version 8) and About the Conflict Index; 18 U.S.C. § 2331; Institute for Economics & Peace, Global Terrorism Index 2025 methodology appendix and the 4 March 2026 note (scoring only).