The Art of Coercion: The Primitive Accumulation and Management of Coercive Power

by Antonio Giustozzi

An expert on the Taliban's modern habits and practices, Antonio Giustozzi asserts a controversial point about the role of violence and coercion in state building, which also happens to be relevant to liberal interventionism. Liberal interventionism's dominant discourse dangerously neglects the role of coercion and the monopoly of violence in the countries it purports to aid. Many scholars assume that a functional liberal state can emerge from a settlement between warring parties, especially if the agreement is characterized by political inclusiveness and a social contract. Yet similar post--Cold War deals have exposed the fallacy of such logic. Giustozzi contends that a key flaw lies in the confusion over the specifics of state formation and state building. In his view, completely different "rules of the game" apply in each scenario. Naked coercion is a key component of state formation, and very few states have been formed without recourse to it. In contrast, the history of state consolidation after initial formation reflects a taming of violence and a sophisticated method of managing it. The Art of Coercion introduces a new framework for analyzing the role of security in its broadest sense, particularly its place in state formation and state building. While focusing largely on nineteenth- and twentieth-century examples, Giustozzi discusses instances of coercive power throughout history, ranging from its use in the Carolingian empire to South Africa's Boer War, and from China's Warring States period to Emiliano Zapata's Mexican Revolution. He scrutinizes the role of armies, guerilla bands, mercenaries, police forces, and intelligence services, exploring why some coups fail while others succeed and how the monopoly of violence decays over time.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 29, 2011

Reviews

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The central thrust of the argument could be boiled down to "give war (or coercive policing) a chance" — challenging the notion that state formation and the maintenance of a state monopoly of effective violence can be effectively accomplished without resort to coercion. At the same time, this coercion is generally most effective at maintaining (once established) the state monopoly of force when it is exercised with a degree of sophistication and discretion, which may ultimately require a move away from patrimonialism and a surrender of some privileges or benefits to non-elite interest groups. There is some discussion of military structures but the primary focus of the book is on the creation and use of various types of police services, militias, secret police, and gendarmeries.

As in Giustozzi's book on Afghan warlords Ismail Khan and Abdul Rashid Dostum Empires of Mud, the volume aims to put the reader in the perspective of state-building elites who must contend for power with insurgent movements or rival elites at the national and sub-national level. The book argues that these elites' frequent decision not to embrace institutional, rules-bound techniques of policing or other reform measures is generally informed by rational survival strategies that take into account the political, security, and resources constraints they operate under, and that misdiagnosis of these constraints generally leads to failure. The longest single chapter elaborates at length on the misdiagnoses and perverse incentives created by external interventions into local conflicts and political systems, even (especially) when conducted under the guise of modernizing reform.

I'm rounding up on my review - 3.75 stars might be closer, as the book is good but not perfect, and this material may be covered better in other volumes. Giustozzi has become a very prolific author in recent years, and I hold his analysis in high regard; this book appears to have been generated through primary research he conducted for other works and subsequently turned into a published volume, which makes for a quick but sometimes incomplete read. A significant amount of literature review from a wide variety of cases was involved, but is heavily summarized due to the book's brevity. Overall, this was an interesting read and offers a useful perspective for state-building analysis.