Warlords: Strong-arm Brokers in Weak States

279 Pages·2012·1.03 MB·English

by  Kimberly Marten

Warlords
A volume in the series
Cornell Studies in Security Affairs
edited by Robert J. Art, Robert Jervis, and Stephen M. Walt
A list of titles in this series is available at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Warlords
Strong-Arm Brokers
in Weak States
Kimberly Marten
Cornell University Press
Ithaca and London
Cornell University Press gratefully acknowledges receipt of support from the
Harriman Institute of Columbia University, which aided in the publication
of this book.
Copyright © 2012 by Cornell University
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts
thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing
from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press,
Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
First published 2012 by Cornell University Press
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marten, Kimberly Zisk, 1963–
Warlords : strong-arm brokers in weak states / Kimberly Marten.
p. cm. — (Cornell studies in security affairs)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8014-5076-1 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Warlordism—History—20th century. 2. Warlordism—History—21st century.
3. Warlordism and international relations. I. Title. II. Series: Cornell studies
in security affairs.
JZ1317.2.M37 2012
321.9—dc23 2011051561
Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and
materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials
include vegetable-based, low-VOC inks and acid-free papers that are recycled,
totally chlorine-free, or partly composed of nonwood fi bers. For further
information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.
Cloth printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my three best friends,
Mom, Dad, and Jack

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
1 . Warlords: An Introduction 1
2 . Warlords and Universal Sovereignty 20
3 . Ungoverned Warlords: Pakistan’s FATA in the
Twentieth Century 31
4 . The Georgian Experiment with Warlords 64
5 . Chechnya: The Sovereignty of Ramzan Kadyrov 102
6 . It Takes Three: Washington, Baghdad, and the Sons of Iraq 139
Conclusion: Lessons and Hypotheses 187
Notes 201
Index 255
[vii]

Acknowledgments
I have received valuable help and feedback from so many friends, col-
leagues, and even relative strangers (whom I have “met” by e-mail or
telephone but not in person) that at times this book has felt like a group
project. The arguments, narratives, and analysis are my sole responsibil-
ity, though. I quite stubbornly did not take all the advice I was given, and
the organizations and individuals acknowledged here may not agree
with my choices.
I t has been a pleasure to work with Roger Haydon, executive editor at
Cornell University Press, and I am grateful for his continuing support
and advice. I appreciate the good work done by the whole Cornell team,
including copyeditor Chris Dodge, Senior Production Editor Karen M.
Laun, and Copy Supervisor Susan Barnett. I’m also grateful for the sup-
port of the editors of the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs series: Robert
J. Art, Robert Jervis, and Stephen M. Walt. Bob Jervis deserves a special
note of thanks for his encouragement throughout this project, as do Bob
Art and an anonymous external reviewer, who read the entire draft man-
uscript and provided valuable suggestions for improvement. In addition
I am grateful to the Harriman Institute at Columbia University for publi-
cation grants that defrayed the costs of the cover photo and indexing of
the book. I thank David Prout for excellent professional indexing.
I am indebted to Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers for inviting me
to participate in a stimulating March 2009 conference at St. Antony’s Col-
lege, sponsored by the faculty of history at Oxford University, which re-
sulted in an edited volume. An earlier version of some of my arguments
(appearing with different wording and scattered throughout several
chapters of this book) fi rst appeared as chapter 16, “Warlords,” in The
[ix]