Review by Choice Review
Ahram (Univ. of Oklahoma) challenges conventional assumptions about state sovereignty and preferences regarding the organization and deployment of legitimate organs of violence, by arguing that late-developing societies frequently and quite willingly embrace and employ militias, gangs, and other nonstate actors as instruments of internal control. Contrary to many existing explanations, which posit that only impotent, failed, or otherwise markedly dysfunctional states would utilize or even allow such actors to exist, Ahram builds and then tests, using detailed case studies, an alternative account that not only upends current explanations but also aims to account for variation in the use of state-sponsored armed groups across space and time. It remains unclear whether the cases examined (i.e., Iraq, Iran, and Indonesia) are truly representative of the universe of potential cases, but the case studies are uniformly well written, and the evidence offered is compellingly presented. The book's thoughtful policy recommendations make it potentially useful for both scholars and practitioners. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections. K. M. Greenhill Tufts and Harvard Universities
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
