Violence, Coercion, and the Politics of State Capture

Elites and Armed Actors in Vulnerable and Fragile States

Federico Manfredi Firmian

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Print ISBN:
  9781041253594
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040865262
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Human Rights
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This edited volume examines how political violence and coercion are central to state capture.

Departing from accounts that largely emphasize economic influence, corruption, and institutional weakness, this volume demonstrates how armed force, intimidation, and repression can be decisive in enabling elites and armed actors to control state institutions. The book examines how, across different political and institutional settings, political and economic elites can work in alliance with armed actors—including militias, paramilitaries, and organized crime networks—to shape policy, extract resources, and undermine accountability. Through comparative case studies spanning the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and southern Europe, the chapters show how, in fragile and vulnerable states, violence and corruption can become embedded in everyday governance. By systematically integrating political violence into the study of state capture, the book offers a timely framework that bridges political economy, security studies, and state-building debates.

This book will be of great interest to students of political violence, corruption, state fragility, governance in contested spaces, and international relations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Tables
• Contributors
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Violence, Coercion, and the Politics of State Capture Elites and Armed Actors in Vulnerable and Fragile States
• 1 How Iran-Aligned Militias Seized Iraq: Irregular Warfare, Lawfare, and Regime Change1
• 2 State Capture in Madagascar: Power, Profits, and Resistance
• 3 Russia’s State Capture Strategy in Africa, from Wagner to the Africa Corps1
• 4 Hezbollah’s State Capture in Lebanon1
• 5 Beyond State Capture: The Case of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan1
• 6 Capturing Calabria?: ‘Ndrangheta, Corruption, and Maladministration in Local Public Institutions in Southern Italy1
• 7 From Conventional Insurgency to Binational Criminal Syndicate?: ELN’s State Capture in the Colombia–Venezuela Borderlands1
• 8 Capturing the State, Undermining Democracy: Organized Crime in Post-2000 Mexico
• Conclusion: Patterns, Pathways, and Perils of State Capture
• Index