The central aim of this paper is to develop a critical framework to investigate civil wars. It provides an overview of liberal and critical approaches to studying civil war, highlights debate within the philosophy of science in the context of civil war studies, and provides an account of process tracing that can be employed to research political violence. The following observations are discussed. Firstly, while investigations into civil war have increased significantly since the end of the Cold War, a ‘critical’ subfield of civil war studies has not yet developed and coalesced. Secondly, the post-Cold War growth in civil war literature has been underpinned by either neo-positivist or post-positivist/interpretivist investigations into civil war, while critical realism has been underemployed. Thirdly, emerging scholarship has presented a case for using process tracing methods for political research, including studies into civil war. This paper aims to make an original contribution to the literature by primarily seeking to develop a coherent critical framework that, rather than being based on Critical Theory, is instead rooted in Historical Materialism. Furthermore, while the utility of combining Historical Materialism and critical realism has been discussed in the broader field of International Relations, as well as Critical Terrorism Studies, the utility of employing this combination for civil war studies has hitherto been overlooked. Finally, there is a lack of scholarship that elucidates the utility of process tracing methods for research adopting a critical realist approach. This is surprising, given their shared conceptions of causality and causal mechanisms. This paper thus highlights how process tracing methods fit well with a mechanistic understanding of causality that is central to a Historical Materialist framework underpinned by critical realism.
