Description
Book SynopsisHow 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...
Trade ReviewMalejacq gives us an extensive, in-depth vision of the political agency of warlords and how they manage to maintain their political authority even in highly challenging (geo)political scenarios. He brings an important and well-grounded interrogation to Western interventionist models of state-building. Moreover, his book has the potential of opening-up the readers' imagination to alternative constructions of political orders and broader perspectives on 'international actors', given his presentation of warlords' skilful diplomacies and strategies towards international politics.
* Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding *
Malejacq's book impressively illustrates in meticulous detail how understanding warlords as limited to organising violence is a gross mis-representation of their skills and political adaptive potential.
* e-International Relations *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Map of areas of relevance
Map of Afghanistan provinces
Introduction: Why Warlord Survival?
Warlords, States, and Political Orders
The Game of Survival
Ismail Khan, the Armed Notable of Western Afghani stan
Dostum, the Ethnic Entrepreneur
Massoud and Fahim: The Mujahid and the Violent Entrepreneu
Conclusion: Beyond Warlord Survival
Notes
Index
