‘Like Worms in the Entrails of a Natural Man’: A Conceptual Analysis of Warlords

Anthony Vinci

Review of African Political Economy, 2007, vol. 34, issue 112, 313-331

Abstract: Warlords are increasingly significant actors in domestic and international politics. Yet, our understanding of them is often one-sided -- based on either the ‘greed’ or ‘grievance’ approach. This paper seeks to mend this deficiency through a detailed and holistic conceptual analysis of warlords, which integrates political, economic, military, and social aspects of warlord organisations. It begins with an overview of past efforts to define and analyse warlords and then explores the features of warlord organisation. Borrowing from theoretical accounts of states by authors such as Weber and Schmitt, the paper examines the relationship between the warlord and his fighters, the warlord organisation as a political community, the nature of warlord governance and command, as well as motivational and logistical factors in perpetuating the warlord organisation.

Date: 2007
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DOI: 10.1080/03056240701449711

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