Networks, Terrorism and Global Insurgency
| Author | Nicholas Marsh |
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300609 |
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Bunker, Robert J., ed., 2005. Networks, Ter-
rorism and Global Insurgency. London & New
York: Routledge. xvii + 221 pp. ISBN
0415385946.
This edited volume has been written by a verita-
ble ‘who’s who’ of US theorists on insurgency and
military strategy (most of whom work for US
military colleges or consultancy firms). Together
with Mark Galeotti and Andrew Garfield (based
in Europe), they provide interesting and infor-
mative analysis of contemporary insurgency and
terrorism. The book is divided into four parts,
focusing on a theoretical and legal introduction;
crime and private armies in Chechnya and
Northern Ireland; Al-Qaeda; and, finally,
networks. There are many highlights. Max Man-
waring provides an impressive overview of the
global security landscape, emphasizing the links
between failed states, criminality, terrorism and
insurgency. The links between terrorism, crime
and private armies are also highlighted by John
Sullivan. Neal Pollard suggests that legalistic anti-
terrorist initiatives are hamstrung by an inability
to prosecute people for being part of terrorist
networks (rather than just as individuals), and
that it is too difficult to take action against the
state sponsors of terrorism. Galeotti and Garfield
have produced informative case studies of, respec-
tively, Chechen insurgents and the Provisional
IRA. Unfortunately, other contributions do not
meet these high standards. Arquilla & Ronfeldt’s
piece on ‘netwar revisited’ is rather perfunctory.
The two biggest disappointments are the two
chapters devoted to Al-Qaeda – Robert Bunker
and Matt Begert’s operational analysis and Lisa
Campbell’s order of battle. Despite recognizing
that it is a disparate body of often loosely con-
nected groups and individuals, they tend to
present it as a unitary foe. They cite examples of
the tactics and technology used by Al-Qaeda
groups, but fail to highlight the extent to which
the rest of the network can actually use them.
Nicholas Marsh
Collins, Kathleen, 2006. Clan Politics and
Regime Transition in Central Asia. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. xx + 376 pp. ISBN
0521839505.
The established academic avenues for examining
macro-shifts in modern societies, such as the
modernization and transition theories, focus on
explaining the advance of democratic institutions;
the new school of ‘state failure’ assesses the risks
of setbacks in this process. There is, surprisingly,
little attention to the driving forces behind the
non-democratic trajectory and the rise of new
autocracies – and Collins’s meticulous research
seeks to fill this gap. She argues that it is the clan
networks that make the most profound impact on
the nature and direction of regime transition
(p. 21). Her definition of clan emphasizes ‘kin
and fictitious kin identities’ as well as vertical/hor-
izontal bonds stemming from ‘rational calcula-
tions of individuals made within a collectivist
cultural and historic context’ (p. 17). The analysis
goes into the history of Central Asia’s colonization
by Russia and investigates the mutation of clan
networks during the Soviet period. The main
emphasis, however, is on the post-Soviet tran-
sition with three main cases – Kyrgyzstan, Tajik-
istan and Uzbekistan – that present the
remarkable convergence of the initially sharply
different political trajectories: respectively, the
democratic reforms, the protracted civil war and
the buildup of an authoritarian regime. The
structure is not entirely clearcut, so the narrative
tends to be rather repetitive, but the argument is
built with utmost care and the comparisons with
other cases, from medieval Italy to present-day
Somalia, add more value. Collins acknowledges
the positive impacts of the clan networks but con-
cludes that their prevalence determines the
decline of states in question; this conclusion was
perfectly illustrated by the collapse of the Akayev’s
regime in Kyrgyzstan in spring 2005, which the
author briefly describes in the epilogue.
Pavel Baev
Davenport, Christian; Hank Johnston &
Carol Mueller, eds, 2005. Repression and Mobiliz-
ation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Min-
nesota Press. xxi + 258 pp. ISBN 0816644268.
This book offers a new model of protest and con-
tention that is far more actor-rich, event- and
regime-specific, and interactive than conventional
models. The authors argue that we must add more
actors, consider the regime’s perceptions of threat
and its own capacities, and examine how repres-
sion shapes the perceptions and actions of protest
groups and others. McPhail and McCarthy point
out that, faced with repression, dissidents often
shifted their tactics. Boudreaux cleverly shows
how a regime’s sense of its match-up shapes its
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 43 / number 6 / november 2006
752
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