Jesse Driscoll is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. He was an fellow of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University, Connecticut and a GAGE fellow at the University of Virginia, and most recently a member of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies from 2009-13. His work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Research and Politics, and the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology.

'Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States offers both a rethinking of the origins of the contemporary state in Eurasia and a reexamination of the relationships among secession, violence, terrorism, and political institutions. This is state-of-the-art political science - a book about real people grappling with matters of life and death, whose experiences we strain to understand using both abstract models and savvy ethnography. Jesse Driscoll helps us see how post-Soviet politics sometimes emerged as the continuation of war by other means.' Charles King, Georgetown University, Washington DC

• 1. Revisionist history; 2. Predator collusion: a high-stakes game; 3. Kto kogo?; 4. Warlord coalitions and militia politics; 5. Coup-proofing; 6. Implications; Case selection and external validity; Mathematical proofs; Anonymous warlords.

Jesse Driscoll is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. He was an fellow of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University, Connecticut and a GAGE fellow at the University of Virginia, and most recently a member of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies from 2009-13. His work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Research and Politics, and the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology.

'Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States offers both a rethinking of the origins of the contemporary state in Eurasia and a reexamination of the relationships among secession, violence, terrorism, and political institutions. This is state-of-the-art political science - a book about real people grappling with matters of life and death, whose experiences we strain to understand using both abstract models and savvy ethnography. Jesse Driscoll helps us see how post-Soviet politics sometimes emerged as the continuation of war by other means.' Charles King, Georgetown University, Washington DC

• 1. Revisionist history; 2. Predator collusion: a high-stakes game; 3. Kto kogo?; 4. Warlord coalitions and militia politics; 5. Coup-proofing; 6. Implications; Case selection and external validity; Mathematical proofs; Anonymous warlords.

Jesse Driscoll is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. He was an fellow of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University, Connecticut and a GAGE fellow at the University of Virginia, and most recently a member of the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies from 2009-13. His work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Research and Politics, and the Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology.

'Warlords and Coalition Politics in Post-Soviet States offers both a rethinking of the origins of the contemporary state in Eurasia and a reexamination of the relationships among secession, violence, terrorism, and political institutions. This is state-of-the-art political science - a book about real people grappling with matters of life and death, whose experiences we strain to understand using both abstract models and savvy ethnography. Jesse Driscoll helps us see how post-Soviet politics sometimes emerged as the continuation of war by other means.' Charles King, Georgetown University, Washington DC

• 1. Revisionist history; 2. Predator collusion: a high-stakes game; 3. Kto kogo?; 4. Warlord coalitions and militia politics; 5. Coup-proofing; 6. Implications; Case selection and external validity; Mathematical proofs; Anonymous warlords.