Strategic Intelligence and Civil Affairs to Understand Legitimacy and Insurgency by Diane E. Chido

Author:Diane E. Chido
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030209773
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

The Tangibles

Corruption

Numerous forms of corruption exacerbate conflict. Most obvious among them are organized criminal and other elements who raise profits through a “danger tax” or who simply find that unstable environments enhance their ability to operate and increase the value of some of their goods, including arms. Another, perhaps even more insidious type of operator is the “tenderpreneur,” working behind the scenes to ensure the conflict continues as they secure legal contracts or tenders to provide security, uniforms, arms, and other goods and services legitimate forces need to stabilize or end the conflict.1 Dr. Michael Dziedzic calls such support to conflict criminalized power structures (CPS), as drivers of “war economies.”2 Even JP 3-07 instructs stabilization operation planners to ask, “Who wins and who loses economically if peace prevails?”3 Such an assessment will aid in identifying potential spoilers once peace begins to break out.

Corruption is often at the heart of the tangible reasons members might give for joining an insurgency. This is not just from a desire to usurp the resources and privileges accruing to a ruling group but also from a perception that these elites have no “natural” right to it (identity) or they are misusing it and have lost the right to rule. For instance, in Somalia, some al-Shabaab members joined in protest of the elite corruption and frustration at the failure of government to bring stability, especially the US-backed Transitional Government established in 2009, widely viewed as a US puppet. Al-Shabaab struck back against the political interference and more kinetic foreign intrusions4 with a May 2014 bombing of a restaurant in Djibouti, accusing that country of being a “launching pad” for attacking Muslims.5 Such complicity in directly supporting an unpopular leader further decreases the legitimacy of the state, as it clearly cannot run its own affairs without foreign interference, thus causing the Stabilizer to lose legitimacy, as it is increasingly associated with the corrupt and illegitimate state it has helped empower. As Dr. Todd Moss noted back in 1995 when the US government encounters unfamiliar forms of political authority, such as that often found in Africa, it is “not geared to deal well with such structures. Its inability to come to terms with Somali clans and the absurd assignment of the military to ‘nationbuilding’ are recent examples.”6

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