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Despite the stress on the politics of praetorianism, the volume describes the Afghan Army's performance on the battlefield in detail, highlighting the potential contradiction between military effectiveness and political loyalty to the ruling elite. 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In this latest book, renowned Afghanistan expert Antonio Giustozzi rounds off his twenty years of studying the Taliban with an authoritative study detailing the evolution of its formidable military machine.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49731871375633,"sku":"NGR9781787381322","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1787381323.jpg?v=1751378461"},{"product_id":"islamic-state-in-khorasan-book-antonio-giustozzi-9781787386266","title":"The Islamic State in Khorasan","description":"So-called Islamic State began to appear in what it calls Khorasan (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Central Asia, Iran and India) in 2014. Reports of its presence were at first dismissed as propaganda, but during 2015 it became clear that IS had a serious presence in Afghanistan and Pakistan at least. 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The Art of Coercion offers a new approach to thinking about the role of security forces, in their broadest sense, in this transition between state formation and state-building. While focussing largely on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Giustozzi discusses coercive power throughout history, from the Carolingian empire to the Boer War, from Zapata's Mexico to China's Warring States. 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Each contributor possesses extensive knowledge of the insurgency's latest developments, decoding its structure and organization as it operates within specific regions and provinces. They analyze the new Taliban as it expands: from the new south, where they hold sway; to the southeast, where they struggle to penetrate; from the west and the northeast, now in the initial stages of infiltration; to the provinces surrounding Kabul, which have been unexpectedly and quickly occupied.  Along with these advances, contributors review current theories for defeating the strategies and propaganda of the new Taliban. Issues covered include the strengths and weaknesses of the organization; the nature of its networks and whether they are based on traditional ties of kin and ethnicity or more institutional chains of command; its success at maintaining unity, even when faced with attrition in the field; the consequences of unruly leaders and conflicts over rule; the group's exploitation of the opium trade; the factors that have contributed to a resurgence in Kabul; and the extent to which Taliban leaders have imposed strategy among the rank and file, despite immense geographical challenges and poorly functioning communication systems. 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This is a book about how the police really work in such a difficult environment, the nuts and bolts approach, based on first hand research, as opposed to a description of how the Afghan police are institutionally organised and regulated.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51809387970833,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51809388003601,"sku":"GOR014409099","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781849042055.jpg?v=1755498678"},{"product_id":"empires-of-mud-book-antonio-giustozzi-9780199326785","title":"Empires of Mud","description":"Warlords, namely charismatic military leaders who exploit the weakness of central authorities to seize control of and autonomously rule a sub-national area, have earned much notoriety in recent years on account of the excesses of civil wars in Liberia, Somalia and Afghanistan. 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In contrast, the history of state consolidation after their initial formation is one of taming violence and creating increasingly sophisticated way of managing it.The Art of Coercion offers a new approach to thinking about the role of security forces, in their broadest sense, in this transition between state formation and state-building. While focussing largely on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Giustozzi discusses coercive power throughout history, from the Carolingian empire to the Boer War, from Zapata's Mexico to China's Warring States. 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Is there a chance of reshaping international intervention in such a way as to favour the development of a 'social contract' between political elites and veterans? In taking a historical perspective, this book is unique in the existing literature on DDR and will be essential reading for policy makers, students and scholars of conflict studies, and those working in NGOs, particularly donor agencies.   This volume was produced with the contribution of the Crisis States Research Centre (LSE).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52691626459409,"sku":"NLS9781138107441","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781138107441.jpg?v=1762340174"},{"product_id":"koran-kalashnikov-and-laptop-book-antonio-giustozzi-9780199326358","title":"Koran Kalashnikov and Laptop","description":"Announcements of an impending victory over the Taliban have been repeated ad nauseam since the Allied invasion of Afghanistan in 2002, particularly after the Presidential elections of 2004, which were said to have marked the \"moral and psychological defeat of the Taliban\". In moments of triumphalism, some commentators claimed that \"reconstruction and development\" had won over the population, despite much criticism of the meagre distribution of aid, the lack of \"nation-building\" and corruption among Kabul's élite. In March 2006, both Afghan and American officials were still claiming, just before a series of particularly ferocious clashes, that \"the Taliban are no longer able to fight large battles\". Later that year, the mood in the mass media had turned to one of defeatism, even of impending catastrophe. In reality, as early as 2003-5 there was a growing body of evidence that cast doubt on the official interpretation of the conflict. Rather than there having been a \"2006 surprise\", Giustozzi argues that the Neo-Taliban insurgency had put down strong roots in Afghanistan as early as 2003, a phenomenon he investigates in this timely and thought-provoking book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52734571086097,"sku":"NIN9780199326358","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52954405273873,"sku":"CIN0199326355G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780199326358.jpg?v=1763396126"},{"product_id":"policing-afghanistan-book-antonio-giustozzi-9780199327942","title":"Policing Afghanistan","description":"Policing is not a popular topic of serious scholarly research. Although a vast literature on policing exists, it is mostly technical in nature and only rarely analytical. Even the police forces of Western Europe and North America have rarely been investigated in depth as far as their history and functioning goes. In particular, the politics of policing, its political economy, have been largely neglected.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This book is a rare in-depth study of a police force in a developing country which is also undergoing a bitter internal conflict, further to the post-2001 external intervention in Afghanistan. Policing Afghanistan discusses the evolution of the country's police through its various stages but focuses in particular on the last decade.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The authors review the ongoing debates over the future shape of Afghanistan's police, but seek primarily to analyse the way Afghanistan is policed relative to its existing social, political and international constraints. 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