Focusing on the examples of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zaire, this text demonstrates how African rulers hold on to power while severed from foreign aid and subjected to collapsing economies and disappearing bureaucracies.--Amazon.com.

"Paperback edition published in 1999 by Lynne Rienner Publishers ; published in hardcover in 1998".--Title page verso.

The distinctive political logic of weak states -- Africa's weakest states after the Cold War -- The organization of warlord politics in Liberia -- Sierra Leone's transition to warlord politics -- Sovereignty and the fragmentation of the Democratic Republic of Congo -- "Reform" and the rejection of liberalism in Nigeria -- Warlords in the global system of states.