Gambling with Violence

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Gambling with Violence is written by Yelena Biberman and published by Oxford University Press. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0190929995 (ISBN 10) and 9780190929992 (ISBN 13).

Gambling with Violence tackles a global problem that is particularly consequential for Pakistan and India: state outsourcing of violence to ordinary civilians, criminals, and ex-insurgents. Drawing on over 200 interviews, archival research, and fieldwork conducted in Islamabad, Srinagar, New Delhi, Dhaka, Diyarbakir, Ankara, Moscow, London, and Washington, D.C., this book introduces the "balance-of-interests" thesis to deepen our understanding of state-nonstate alliances in civil war. Incorporating international case studies of previously underexplored conduct and little-known governmental alliances with criminals and ex-rebels, this book reveals configurations of local power and actors' interests that result in distinct alliance patterns and demonstrates the framework's applicability in South Asia and beyond.