Population displacement is a devastating feature of contemporary conflict with far-reaching political and humanitarian consequences. This book demonstrates the extent to which displacement is a deliberate strategy of war, not just a consequence of it. Moving beyond instances of ethnic cleansing, Adam Lichtenheld draws on field research in Uganda and Syria; case studies from Burundi, Indonesia, and Vietnam; and an original dataset of strategic displacement in 166 civil wars to show that armed groups often uproot civilians to sort the targeted population, not to get rid of it. When lacking information about opponents' identities and civilians' loyalties, combatants use human mobility to infer wartime affiliations through 'guilt by location'. Different displacement strategies occur in different types of civil wars, with some relying on spatial profiling, rather than ethnic profiling. As displacement reaches record highs, Lichtenheld's findings have important implications for the study of forced migration and policy responses to it.

Winner, 2025 Book of the Year Prize, Conflict Research Society

‘When and why are people displaced during war? Guilt by Location offers us entirely new insight into this question, highlighting how states and insurgent groups repeatedly force civilians into gut-wrenching decisions to stay or leave their homes in order to gain insight into their political loyalties. It is the most theoretically sophisticated account of wartime displacement to date and is a remarkable achievement.'

Lachlan McNamee - Author of Settling for Less: Why States Colonize and Why They Stop

‘In this gripping book, Adam Lichtenheld gives us new tools to understand forced migration. Armed groups displace civilians not only to remove rival sympathizers, but also to identify them to begin with. This insight, and the rich empirics anchored by in-depth fieldwork and an original, cross-national dataset on all forms of strategic displacement, shows why displacement is such a prevalent form of wartime violence. All scholars of forced migration or wartime violence should read it.'

Abbey Steele - Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Amsterdam

‘Population displacement during conflict is increasingly well documented but remains poorly understood. No longer. Distinguishing between different types of displacement and focusing on the strategies of the state, Lichtenheld finds that the most prevalent type, forced relocation, serves a key political goal: to sort friends from foes. Combining analytical clarity with empathy and brimming with implications, Guilt by Location is essential reading for better understanding conflict.'

Stathis N. Kalyvas - University of Oxford