This chapter presents the explanation and consequences of sexual violence in war. In the study of warfare, there are significant gaps in people's knowledge and understanding of the political effectiveness of a common military strategy; that of organised sexual violence against women. A more general and highly pervasive assumption made by journalists and academics about men's violence against women during wars is that sexual violence is inevitability if social constraints on men's behaviour are removed, and has no other real 'purpose'. Rather than changes in masculinity somehow being inevitable with war, some writers emphasise that this change is consciously sought and promoted by political leaders as part of the purposeful strategy of rape as a weapon of war. Sexual violence committed by military and civilian men against women and girls is a common feature of war and its aftermath across the world.