Irregular armed forces and their role in politics and state formation
- Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ Press, 2003
- 419p.
The importance of irregular forces - militias, guerillas, mercenaries, bandits, vigilantes etc - in the formation of states has often been underestimated. In many parts of the modern world state legitimacy has been difficult to achieve being constantly under threat from irregular forces within the country's borders. This book presents several case studies to show that the creation of the nation state as a secure political entity rests as much on irregular as regular armed forces.