Most studies of violence in the Middle East and South Asia come from the perspective of honour or political violence. By contrast, this important study offers a new perspective on its causes in Pakistan's unruly North-West Frontier Province, challenging stereotyped images of a region and people miscast as extremist and militant.

Based on an in-depth study of local conflicts, the book sheds light on the complexities of violence, not only at the structural or systemic level, but also as experienced by the men involved in lethal conflict.In this way, the book provides a subjective and experiential approach to violence that is applicable beyond the field locality and relevant for advancing the study of violence in the Middle East and South Asia.