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“Civil war” remains an object that is difficult to identify and define among the various forms of war. In contrast, it can become a useful conceptual tool when we try to differentiate its constitutive elements, such as the transmutation of communitarian revenge and resentments into political goals, the legitimacy granted to all violent acts against rival groups, the engagement into a war to the finish… Such an approach can help us understand how the judgments made about this notion have evolved with time and why it has become once again topical.