Books like Insurgent Fragmentation in the Horn of Africa — picked by fans

Militias have become an increasingly popular tool at the hands of governments in countering insurgency in their peripheries, and hence, a recurring feature in conflicts. Because of the ad hoc nature of militia recruitment and their irregular form, students of conflict tended to overlook their impact on politics and society, assuming that once conflict subsided, these actors vanished.

Ahram’s work is one of the first to challenge this conception, demonstrating the profound impact that this ‘outsourcing’ of violence from governments to peripheral security providers can have on conflict and the state as a whole. In this respect, Ahram’s book has served as the basis for the constantly growing literature on pro-government militias in conflict.

Researchers rarely have the opportunity to gain an insight into the inner workings of authoritarian regimes. Opening the Ba‘th Party archives to researchers has been one of these rare opportunities and has resulted in an outburst of fascinating works. Most of these studies, however, have been carried out by historians. Therefore, Blaydes’s research stands out, as it sets an example of how political scientists can benefit from archival sources and historical case studies as labs to challenge conventions in the field, in this case, about the origins of authoritarianism.

Blaydes provides a detailed and nuanced account of Ba‘thist Iraq, from the Kurdish North to the predominantly Shi‘i South, combining chronological and thematic analysis to highlight every aspect of the Ba‘thist state’s repression of the Iraqi population. Blaydes’s findings feed into broader theoretical conclusions about how and why people choose to collaborate with or challenge a dictatorship.

More than a decade after the eruption of the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ (an objectionable concept that Mabon avoids using) in 2011, these events and their implications continue to fascinate students of the Middle East.

Mabon’s book joins the many works on the subject. However, it offers a unique perspective, one that integrates political theory and is inspired by the works of Giorgio Agamben, Hannah Arendt, Gilles Deleuze, and Achille Mbembe, among others, as lenses through which to explore the implications of the collapse of sovereign borders and the resurfacing of communal identities, which in turn have led to the rise of protracted conflicts in the region, within, and more recently also between states in the region.

The book’s research is based on fieldwork in countries across the region and multiple interviews with various individuals and stakeholders in these countries. It is an excellent read for anyone wishing to gain empirical… show more.

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 them into the emerging order in the country.

Through a close examination and detailed accounts of several case studies from across Afghanistan, Mukhopadhyay offers persuading arguments about what makes warlords and other peripheral actors useful allies to a weak central government.

I knew Saw Ralph and Naw Sheera when we were in Manerplaw, which used to be the headquarters of the Karen resistance, in Burma. As a little girl, I often followed my mother Nant Kyin Shwe to her workplace and remembered seeing Naw Sheera in the office of the Karen Women's Organisation. When I read her book, it reminds me of all the places and the people, and my beautiful childhood in, Kawthoolei, Burma. 

You know how you go somewhere you’ve never been and you feel hollow in your bones, like you’re more fragile there, you might blow away in a strong wind or just melt down if this place doesn’t learn to recognize you?

Amatka is like that, and it’s about that. We follow someone trying to diligently do a perfectly normal market research gig in place where everyday objects must be clearly labelled and the labels reinforced constantly, otherwise they dissolve into slush.

She has to keep putting things in their place, but she’s not too good at that, because she’s always been out of place herself.

I mean, isn’t that exactly what life is like? And then it all falls apart.

I think some of the strongest and most compelling stories can be told in video game RPGs, and I consistently refer to this one as having some of the best characters. I read this novel after playing the game, and I loved being able to learn more about Loghain.

In this book, he is lorded as a powerful figure, and he affects major parts of the story. I loved exploring his backstory and seeing his character evolve and grow into how he is in the game. I also enjoyed connecting the pieces of his personality to the plot of the novel. The author captured the formula of creating “real,” flawed characters from the game and translated it excellently into prose.

Marwan Kraidy’s book is a deep dive into the cultural politics of the Arab Uprisings during 2011. Wonderfully written and cleverly organized this academic book looks at the ‘digital’ nature of these resistance movements and the use of art and media tools in the protests. The focus is on young Arabs who used the street to challenge authority and cutting-edge social media platforms to argue for social change. In the book political activism and a period of digital euphoria meet when places like Tahrir Square became the centre of the world. This is one of the most essential accounts of 2011 that offers a refreshing take on Facebook and Twitter as revolutionary agents that helped to bring down the military regime. 

This is a great book written by an accomplished scholar later in his career and confident in his research and writing. Telling the tale of the uprising, and crushing, of Tomochic village, Vanderwood zooms into the smaller details of village life and pans out to nation-level decisions with remarkable panache. In a highly enjoyable way, he brings the reader into the action without omitting the broader historical relevance. The reader may enter this for the critique of the dictator’s late nineteenth-century armies, but they will keep reading to find the fate of the unfortunate “town son of a bitch.” 

First, I need to explain that the title of this book is deceptive as Riverbend, an Iraqi tech expert, is a well-educated young woman, not a girl. The book is taken from her blog, written from August 2003 through September 2004, and details the changes that war between Saddam Hussein and American forces brings to Iraq.

I lived in the US during these years and followed the news closely as the US organized and launched its attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime with “shock and awe”. However, Riverbend’s account taught me far more than all the media accounts. Her formerly quiet life as a computer tech ends as a woman is no longer allowed to come into the office, or even be safely seen on the street. Almost every page contains contrasts of Iraqi everyday life as lived by her family with the changes the invasion brings—changes no U.S. reader was… show more.