Warlord Survival

Warlord Survival Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Warlord Survival book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.

Warlord Survival

Author : Romain Malejacq
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2020-01-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781501746437

Get Book

Warlord Survival by Romain Malejacq Pdf

How do warlords survive and even thrive in contexts that are explicitly set up to undermine them? How do they rise after each fall? Warlord Survival answers these questions. Drawing on hundreds of in-depth interviews in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2018, with ministers, governors, a former vice-president, warlords and their entourages, opposition leaders, diplomats, NGO workers, and local journalists and researchers, Romain Malejacq provides a full investigation of how warlords adapt and explains why weak states like Afghanistan allow it to happen. Malejacq follows the careers of four warlords in Herat, Sheberghan, and Panjshir—Ismail Khan, Abdul Rashid Dostum, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and Mohammad Qasim Fahim). He shows how they have successfully negotiated complicated political environments to survive ever since the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan war. The picture he paints in Warlord Survival is one of astute political entrepreneurs with a proven ability to organize violence. Warlords exert authority through a process in which they combine, instrumentalize, and convert different forms of power to prevent the emergence of a strong, centralized state. But, as Malejacq shows, the personal relationships and networks fundamental to the authority of Ismail Khan, Dostum, Massoud, and Fahim are not necessarily contrary to bureaucratic state authority. In fact, these four warlords, and others like them, offer durable and flexible forms of power in unstable, violent countries.

Negotiating Survival

Author : Ashley Jackson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2021-12-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9780197644140

Get Book

Negotiating Survival by Ashley Jackson Pdf

Two decades on from 9/11, the Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan. Few would have foreseen such an outcome, and there is little understanding of how Afghans living in Taliban territory have navigated life under insurgent rule. Based on over 400 interviews with Taliban and civilians, this book tells the story of how civilians have not only bargained with the Taliban for their survival, but also ultimately influenced the course of the war in Afghanistan. While the Taliban have the power of violence on their side, they nonetheless need civilians to comply with their authority. Both strategically and by necessity, civilians have leveraged this reliance on their obedience in order to influence Taliban behaviour. Challenging prevailing beliefs about civilians in wartime, Negotiating Survival presents a new model for understanding how civilian agency can shape the conduct of insurgencies. It also provides timely insights into Taliban strategy and objectives, explaining how the organisation has so nearly triumphed on the battlefield and in peace talks. While Afghanistan's future is deeply unpredictable, there is one certainty: it is as critical as ever to understand the Taliban--and how civilians survive their rule.

Kane's Ladder

Author : Carlos Alba
Publisher : Birlinn
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2011-05-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780857901118

Get Book

Kane's Ladder by Carlos Alba Pdf

It's 1975 and Britain is a country in political flux. In Glasgow the dirty old Victorian slums have been razed to the ground, replaced with brand new slums twenty storeys high. Chips are a health food and the very mention of filet mignon would spark a riot on the Govan Road. As its citizens struggle to adapt to their changing world, they wonder what will replace the steel mills and the shipyards, whether they look stupid in flares and what the lyrics of the Bay City Rollers' 'Shang-A-Lang' actually mean? Ten-year-old Steve Duff longs to be poor and neglected like his friend Wally, whose parents are incapable drunks. Frustratingly for Steve, he's saddled with a conventional, stable and middle-class family. Then, over the course of a year, his father has a fling with a barmaid and leaves home, his mother's response is to start a psychology degree, his sister is arrested for demanding money with menaces and his brother gets a girl pregnant.As if the normal indignities of growing up weren't bad enough...This is a funny touching and heart-warming debut novel that will strike a chord with anyone who has been an awkward kid at least once in their life.

Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan

Author : Dipali Mukhopadhyay
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 45,6 Mb
Release : 2014-02-13
Category : Law
ISBN : 9781107729193

Get Book

Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan by Dipali Mukhopadhyay Pdf

Warlords have come to represent enemies of peace, security, and 'good governance' in the collective intellectual imagination. This book asserts that not all warlords are created equal. Under certain conditions, some become effective governors on behalf of the state. This provocative argument is based on extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan, where Mukhopadhyay examined warlord-governors who have served as valuable exponents of the Karzai regime in its struggle to assert control over key segments of the countryside. She explores the complex ecosystems that came to constitute provincial political life after 2001 and exposes the rise of 'strongman' governance in two provinces. While this brand of governance falls far short of international expectations, its emergence reflects the reassertion of the Afghan state in material and symbolic terms that deserve our attention. This book pushes past canonical views of warlordism and state building to consider the logic of the weak state as it has arisen in challenging, conflict-ridden societies like Afghanistan.

Chinese Regionalism

Author : Richard H Yang
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 41,5 Mb
Release : 2021-11-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780429715990

Get Book

Chinese Regionalism by Richard H Yang Pdf

As China is poised to become a global economic force, its leadership is on the brink of imminent and potentially sweeping change. With Deng Xiaoping's demise seemingly at hand, the inevitable redistribution of power within this vast land has become a crucial concern for China and the world alike. How will China cope with this changing of the guard? Will a centralized government remain, or will the country break apart? This comprehensive volume brings specialists from East and West together to assess the key issue of regionalism and its effect on shifting power in the PRC. Focusing specifically on the pivotal role of the People's Liberation Army, the contributors address a wide range of topics, including economic reform, the possible reprise of warlordism, and regional security, and they present a variety of case studies

Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States

Author : Jesse Driscoll
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 265 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781107063358

Get Book

Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States by Jesse Driscoll Pdf

This book presents an account of war settlement in Georgia and Tajikistan as local actors maneuvered in the shadow of a Russian-led military intervention. Combining ethnography and game theory and quantitative and qualitative methods, this book presents a revisionist account of the post-Soviet wars and their settlement.

Western Intervention and Informal Politics

Author : Troels Burchall Henningsen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2021-12-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000523430

Get Book

Western Intervention and Informal Politics by Troels Burchall Henningsen Pdf

This book examines the political and military dynamic between threatened local regimes and Western powers, and it argues that the power of informal politics forces local regimes to simulate statebuilding. Reforms enabling local states to take care of their own terrorist and insurgency threats are a blueprint for most Western interventions to provide a way out of protracted internal conflicts. Yet, local regimes most often fail to implement reforms that would have strengthened their hand. This book examines why local regimes derail the reforms demanded by Western powers when they rely on their support to stay in power during existentially threatening violent crises. Based on the political settlement framework, the author analyses how web-like networks of militarized elites require local regimes to use informal politics to stay in power. Four case studies of Western intervention are presented: Iraq (2011-2018), Mali (2011-2020), Chad (2005-2010), and Algeria (1991-2000). These studies demonstrate that informal politics narrows strategic possibilities and forces regimes to rely on coup-proofing military strategies, to continue their alliances with militias and former insurgents, and to simulate statebuilding reforms to solve the dilemma of satisfying militarized elites and Western powers at the same time. This book will be of much interest to students of statebuilding, international intervention, counter-insurgency, civil wars, and international relations.

Afghanistan

Author : Niamatullah Ibrahimi,William Maley
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 210 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2019-11-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780429841392

Get Book

Afghanistan by Niamatullah Ibrahimi,William Maley Pdf

This book offers an overview of the formation of the Afghan state and of the politics, economic challenges and international relations of contemporary Afghanistan. It opens with an account of some of the key features that make Afghanistan unique and proceeds to discuss how the Afghan state acquired a distinctive character as a rentier state. In addition, the authors outline a complex range of domestic and external factors that led to the breakdown of the state, and how that breakdown gave rise to a set of challenges with which Afghan political and social actors have been struggling to deal since the 2001 international intervention that overthrew the anti-modernist Taliban regime. It then presents the different types of politics that Afghanistan has witnessed over the last two decades; examines some of the most important features of the Afghan economy; and demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geopolitical location and international relations more broadly have complicated the task of promoting stability in the post-2001 period. It concludes with some reflections on the factors that are likely to shape Afghanistan’s future trajectory and notes that if there are hopes for a better future, they largely rest on the shoulders of a globalised generation of younger Afghans. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of Middle East and Central Asian studies, international relations, politics, development studies and history.

Voices of the Afghanistan War

Author : Brian L. Steed,Sheri Steed
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2023-06-15
Category : History
ISBN : 9798216172512

Get Book

Voices of the Afghanistan War by Brian L. Steed,Sheri Steed Pdf

The War in Afghanistan was the longest military conflict in American history. In a diverse collection of primary documents, this book explores the evolving legacy of the war and its impact on the countless lives it changed forever. Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States spent almost 20 years at war in Afghanistan until it officially withdrew its military forces in August 2021. As the longest war in American history, the War in Afghanistan cost trillions of dollars to sustain and claimed the lives of thousands of American soldiers and many more Afghan civilians. This book tells the story of the war from its varied perspectives, including documents from American and Afghan politicians, high-ranking military officers, and diplomats. The topics covered are even more diverse, ranging from the building and training of security forces and the use drones in modern warfare to the importance of education and the role of women in combat. What the editors lead readers to understand is that the peoples referred to as Afghans have little in common beyond the land itself-a simple, basic, and ultimately ignored reality at the heart of the U.S. invasion, occupation, and frustration in Afghanistan.

Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution

Author : Tom Woodhouse,Oliver Ramsbotham
Publisher : Psychology Press
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : Arbitration (International law)
ISBN : 0714649767

Get Book

Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution by Tom Woodhouse,Oliver Ramsbotham Pdf

This book is about the ways in which conflict resolution theory has become relevant to the challenges faced by UN peacekeeping forces as efforts are made to learn from the impact of the civil wars that have erupted in the 1990s.

Militia Order in Afghanistan

Author : Matthew P. Dearing
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2021-07-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000406771

Get Book

Militia Order in Afghanistan by Matthew P. Dearing Pdf

This book offers a new insight into when and why paramilitary groups in Afghanistan engage in protective or predatory behavior against the civilians they purportedly defend. In Afghanistan’s counterinsurgency environment, America leaned on militias to provide order and stabilize communities cut off from weak central government institutions. However, the lucrative market of protection challenged militia loyalty, as many engaged in banditry, vendettas, and predation. This book examines the varying militia experiments in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2020 and their outcomes through three sub-national case studies. It argues that successful militia experiments in Afghanistan involved inclusion of local orders, where communities had well-established social structures and accountability mechanisms in place, and state patrons relied upon those structures as a restraint against militia behavior. Complementary management ensured patrons leaned on communities for strong accountability systems. But such environments were far from the norm. When patrons ignored community controls, militias preyed on civilians as they monopolized the market of protection. This book adds to the rich literature on the U.S. experience in Afghanistan, but differs by focusing on the interplay between states, communities, and militias. This book will be of much interest to students of military and strategic studies, Asian politics, security studies and International Relations.

Princes, Priests and Warlords

Author : Alexander Degrate
Publisher : iUniverse
Page : 346 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2000-10
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780595142910

Get Book

Princes, Priests and Warlords by Alexander Degrate Pdf

CLARREN sits fighting back tears as a priest plucks out one strand of hair for every year of her life. When he finishes, she starts to rub the sore spots on her head, only to have the priest slap her hand away, warning that she is inviting witchcraft. As he finishes he warns Clarren to have her hair cut so that it does not go beyond her knee and to watch that what is cut away is burned immediately in a fire so that no one may use it to cast a spell on her. Before departing he warns her among other things to take care no one in her household destroys a cobweb, and to avoid black dogs, cats and hens. What has brought Clarren to such measures? She’s getting married.She is taken from a very sheltered life to be a political pawn, where she is suppose to influence powerful people, as she is caught up in a power play for the throne from double-crosses to the return of an heir, long thought dead. Princes promise her loyalty, priests warn her of displeasing the gods, and warlords vie for more territory. Clarren must decide who she can trust.

Comparing Armed Conflicts

Author : Bruno Charbonneau,Adam Sandor
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 183 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-07-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9781000425208

Get Book

Comparing Armed Conflicts by Bruno Charbonneau,Adam Sandor Pdf

Comparing armed conflicts primes the production of categories that, when mobilized, can alter the trajectories of the conflicts. Considering the political dynamism of spaces of conflict and intervention, and that practitioners regularly seek out academic expertise, this book discusses the possibilities and limits of comparative approaches to understanding armed conflict and intervention. Capacity-building experts, development workers, international organizations, and diplomats use their previous experiences and bring them into new contexts to understand and respond to their environment. Conflict actors can also make comparisons to buttress their political position in negotiations, consolidate their control over fighters, and as calls for transnational rebel solidarity. The use of such comparisons is an inherently political move and it has an impact on the production of scientific knowledge, on conflict dynamics themselves, and on the formulation and implementation of conflict management policy: comparison is inherently a practice of order-making. While there are important epistemological and methodological stakes associated with researchers engaging in comparison, there are also important productive effects connected to the research avenues taken. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Civil Wars.

Violent Resistance

Author : Corinna Jentzsch
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2022-01-13
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781108837453

Get Book

Violent Resistance by Corinna Jentzsch Pdf

Using original fieldwork, Violent Resistance explains when, where, and how communities form militias to defend themselves in civil wars.

Waiting for Dignity

Author : Florian Weigand
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 417 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2022-09-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780231553643

Get Book

Waiting for Dignity by Florian Weigand Pdf

In August 2021, Taliban fighters entered the presidential palace in Kabul, ending twenty years of international efforts to build a democratic state in Afghanistan. Did the Taliban’s success rest on coercion and violence alone, or did they win the battle for public support through ideology and better services? Or did most people in the country not believe in the idea of the state at all, trusting only local elders and traditional councils? What is the source of legitimacy during armed conflict? In Waiting for Dignity, Florian Weigand investigates legitimacy and its absence in Afghanistan. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, he examines the perspectives of ordinary people in Afghanistan as well as those of rival claimants to authority: insurgents, warlords, members of parliament, security forces, and community leaders. By exploring how different types of authority attempted to legitimize their rule, Waiting for Dignity challenges common assumptions about how to build legitimacy, such as by delivering services, holding elections, or adopting traditional institutions. Weigand shows that what matters in conflict zones is what he terms interactive dignity: Citizens judge authorities on the basis of their day-to-day experiences with them. People want to be treated with dignity. The extent to which people perceive interactions to be fair, inclusive, and respectful is vital to the construction of lasting order. Combining theoretical originality with in-depth and compelling empirical detail, this book offers timely new insights into recent developments in Afghanistan and the challenges facing conflict-torn areas more widely.