Product Description

This book examines a variety of comparative and historical experiences in which irregular armed forces (ranging from militias, paramilitaries, guerrillas, bandits, mercenaries, vigilantes, and police forces to armed veteran groups) have struggled against or on behalf of national states. The study hopes to raise questions about the new political relevance of these types of armed forces. It considers the conditions under which they are more significant than conventional military personnel in supplanting or undermining states, and their broader role in national political development.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #874849 in Books
• Published on: 2003-01-13
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.99 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 430 pages

Review
"This book's editors and contributors deserve high praise for producing what is all too rare in edited works: a coherent collection of insightful, provocative, and well-documented papers informed by history and theory but intent on challenging conceptions of both. ...a 'must read' for scholars of many disciplinary and theoretical persuasions...a powerful intellectual achievement, issuing broad challenges to traditional thinking about core issues in political and military sociology." Journal of Political & Military Sociology

"Scholars have long recognized that wars and violent conflicts have played a central role in the formation, aggrandizement, impoverishment, and collapse of national states. However, the protagonists of these struggles have included not only national armies, but also police, warlords, guerillas, paramilitaries, death squads, and terrorist networks. By stressing the importance of such 'irregular' warriors, the essays collected by Diane Davis and Anthony Pereira challenge much of the received wisdom about state building, past and present. This volume casts a bright light upon the nature of modern warfare, state formation and democratization." Jeff Goodwin, New York University

Book Info
In this volume, scholars suggest that the Western European model of armies waging war on behalf of sovereign states does not hold universally. No account of modern state formation can be considered complete without attending to irregular forces.