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Strong-arm Brokers in Weak States
Cornell University Press
June 2012
On Sale: June 10, 2012
280 pages
ISBN: 0801450764
EAN: 9780801450761
Kindle: B008AJC9GQ
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Warlords are individuals who control small territories
within weak states, using a combination of force and
patronage. In this book, Kimberly Marten shows why and how
warlords undermine state sovereignty. Unlike the feudal
lords of a previous era, warlords today are not
state-builders. Instead they collude with cost-conscious,
corrupt, or frightened state officials to flout and
undermine state capacity. They thrive on illegality, relying
on private militias for support, and often provoke violent
resentment from those who are cut out of their networks.
Some act as middlemen for competing states, helping to
hollow out their own states from within. Countries ranging
from the United States to Russia have repeatedly chosen to
ally with warlords, but Marten argues that to do so is a
dangerous proposition. Drawing on interviews, documents, local press reports, and
in-depth historical analysis, Marten examines warlordism in
the Pakistani tribal areas during the twentieth century, in
post-Soviet Georgia and the Russian republic of Chechnya,
and among Sunni militias in the U.S.-supported Anbar
Awakening and Sons of Iraq programs. In each case state
leaders (some domestic and others foreign) created,
tolerated, actively supported, undermined, or overthrew
warlords and their militias. Marten draws lessons from these
experiences to generate new arguments about the relationship
between states, sovereignty, "local power brokers," and
stability and security in the modern world.
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