A must-read for comparativists and IR scholars interested in peacebuilding, the state, and African politics, as well as for policy makers involved with these issues in the CAR and beyond.'

African Affairs

In this stimulating and provocative book, Louisa Lombard proposes a new approach to peace-keeping, peace enforcement and humanitarian action that rests upon a politics of redistribution and acknowledgement of the social dignity of fighters lacking a state.

Jean-François Bayart, Graduate Institute Geneva

With a stunning combination of conceptual clarity and vivid ethnography, Louisa Lombard's book challenges conventional wisdom on the roots of violence in the CAR. A must-read for anyone wanting to engage with current debates on peace-building and state-building initiatives.

Marielle Debos, author of Living by the Gun in Chad

Brilliant ... Provides a magisterial reading of the role of violence in the making of the CAR. Authoritative, nuanced, and empirically rich, Lombard offers a new and compelling lens through which so-called state failure and post-conflict transitions can be understood.

Michael Watts, University of California, Berkeley (Emeritus)

This valuable, indeed important, study helps us make sense of a little-known but strategically important African country. Those who wish to know Africa today need to know this book.

Paul Richards, author of No Peace, No War: An Anthropology of Contemporary Armed Conflicts

If you want to understand why the CAR seems a perpetual work in regress, then Louisa Lombard's book is a must read. Her new perspectives illuminate a neglected recess of globalization.

Stephen W. Smith, Duke University