S9: Warlordism Flashcards
How do warlords manage to survive in spite of the increasing external pressure for
centralization?
-Their ability to survive is that they make themself indispensable at different political levels and exploits gaps between them.
-(Marten 2012, 7): Warlords combine structure and agency, certain individuals at any time in human history may be psychologically disposed to become self-interested specialists in violence; weak states provide those individuals with the opportunity to become warlords
What definition does Malejacq use on warlords?
-Warlords are political entrepeneurs with proven ability to organize violence and control territory on multiple political levels.
What is the Cycle of authority? link between growing state and weaking warlords and vice versa
- When the pressure of state centralization prevents them from exerting military power and controlling territory, they transform, adjust and bide their time. They shape-shift and instrumentalize what Westerners perceive as social disorder to ensure their survival in a changing political environment.
-Warlords had to develop more subtle strategies to remain indispensable. They had to reinvent themselves, for instance, by becoming businessmen, ministers or governors. Yet the warlords always maintained their ability to shape-shift and take up arms, if needed.
What lead to increasing military strength of warlords around 2014?
-Growing strength and threat from the Taliban. The warlords transformed themselves back to a less discreet way of operating and started to remobilise and rearm their forces.
Warlord structure
State resources: SR
Warlord resources: WR
Warlord survival
SR low WR high: Regional authority
SR high WR high: Parallel authority
SR low WR low: Fragmented authority
SR high WR low: Consolidated authority.
What are the two state formation paradigms?
War-making paradigm: Charles Tilly, war as main state builder, states emerged as a result for rulers to organize and fund wars. War-making requires resources, including taxation and the ability to mobilize and control armed forces. As rulers sought to finance wars, they developed institutions and administrative structures to extract resources from the population.
State-making paradigm: Max Weber, views state formation as a more gradual and complex process. States arise from the need for governance, order, and the provision of public goods. Emphasizing the development of administrative and bureaucratic institutions to govern society effectively.
Warlords use neither paradigm: what do they use?
Cycles of authority: increasing state power means they become more discreet and more on the background. When threats increase and the state becomes less powerful they use their resources to remobilize and rearm their forces.
What is the delusion of state building in Afghanistan?
state building is impossible in fragmented societies without significant concessions to nonstate power holders. State building that is aimed at centralizing and monopolizing political authority is a delusion because warlords are
in fact integral to the way states like Afghanistan actually work
