This article examines human rights abuse and “bad governance” as factors in forced migration. More specifically, it focuses on militarized violence as the most extreme cause of displacement internally and internationally. The article discusses the potentially precarious position of refugees and the historical pattern of displacement. It argues that the formulation of a set of policies to respond to the more than 16 million refugees and 26 million internally displaced people will inevitably need to confront some of the most pressing problems of contemporary politics, such as failed states, “ethnic” violence, systemic human rights abuse, arms trafficking, and resource mismanagement. Ultimately, the policy objective must be to improve bad governance before it degenerates into the levels of violence that create massive refugee flows.