One aim has been to persuade the IMF and other international lenders to treat Colombia's economy as a war victim.

ECONOMIST: Uribe's hour

This intensifies the risk that Guinea could fall victim to the sort of brutal war both Liberia and Sierra Leone have already suffered.

ECONOMIST: Sierra Leone

Some of the irrational pessimism currently pervading Japan seems to be the result of an identity crisis to which many Japanese have fallen victim since the end of the cold war and the achievement of Japan's goal of catching up with the West.

ECONOMIST: The once and future boom

Their story across both books has as many interpretations as characters: Stuart (pedestrian materialist or honest realist) is the victim (all's fair in love and war) of his best friend Oliver (pretentious parasite or inspired romantic) who steals (wins) his wife, Gillian, and goes to live with her in France.

ECONOMIST: New novels

In fact, the litigator frames the dispute as a war in which the opponent is the enemy and the client the victim.

FORBES: The Lawyers are Wrong - Engage, Don't Suppress, Emotion

Already during World War Two, however, the Allied powers declared Austria to be a victim - rather than accomplice - of Nazi aggression.

BBC: Gross symbolises Austria's past

It was, accordingly, declared Germany's first victim, a chance pounced upon by Austria's post-war politicians (many of whom were themselves victims of Nazism).

ECONOMIST: Austria since Hitler

Being a victim would spare Austria reparations and hasten the closure of its pre-war divisions, so they quite reasonably felt.

ECONOMIST: Austria since Hitler

Aleksey Malashenko, a member of the research council at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said Russia was trying to protect its citizens who might be the victim of revenge attacks if the anti-Assad opposition prevails in the war.

BBC: Russians flee Syrian conflict on planes from Beirut

Mr Cavallo has denied his involvement and says he is the victim of mistaken identity and that he played no part in Argentina's "Dirty War".

BBC: Spain requests Cavallo extradition