Why read Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan?

Book cover of Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan

Book description

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…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Warlords, Strongman Governors, and the State in Afghanistan as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Yaniv Voller

Author

Mukhopadhyay’s book joined an emerging cohort of books that sought to demonstrate that the collapse of the state does not necessarily lead to a vacuum. This is because any vacuum left by the decline of the state is bound to be filled by other forces, be they local or external to the region.

In the case of Afghanistan, Mukhopadhyay shows through the case of Afghanistan, and based on a fieldwork in the country, how the state that was born out of the ousting of the Taliban in 2001 was capable of co-opting local warlords in the remote periphery and integrate…

From Yaniv's list on The best books on conflict and security in the Middle East and Africa.