Warlord

Warlord refers to a military leader who, independent of state power, controls the security sector of a part of a country or dominates a limited area that has escaped state control. The phenomenon occurs in modern times, especially in states weakened or failed by civil wars. The term, borrowed from English, was first used to describe military actors in the Chinese Civil War from 1911 onwards (as a loan transfer from Chinese 軍閥 / 军阀, Pinyin jūnfá).

In English, the German-language term Kriegsherr, which originated in recent German constitutional history, is also translated by the English word warlord. In German, however, the two terms Kriegsherr and warlord are not synonymous, but are usually to be strictly distinguished.

An exceptional case in which the terms warlord and warlord are used largely interchangeably, even in German, is the historiography of ancient Imperial China, in which the competing local rulers, provincial princes, and petty kings that have appeared especially since the time of the Han dynasty are often referred to indiscriminately as "warlords," "warlords," or (probably influenced by English-language historiography) as "warlords."

Description

The term was originally coined in this meaning in the context of the first Chinese republic (1912-1949), in which large parts of China were controlled by competing local rulers who did not recognize the authority of the formally existing central government in Nanjing, or only to a limited extent. Towards the end of the 1990s the term was revived and is now used primarily in connection with trouble spots in Africa and the greater Middle East region (especially Afghanistan).

As a rule, the position of a warlord is not based on formal powers, but on the factual possibility of exercising power or rule on the basis of the loyalty of armed units to him. Characteristic of the rule of warlords is a high degree of instability, as they lack legitimacy and for this reason are highly dependent on temporary power constellations and military successes. Warlords are therefore often primarily concerned with controlling and securing their local sphere of power. Warlords are not to be equated with "commanders" or supreme commanders of a regular army.

A warlord can only achieve his position if the state's monopoly on the use of force collapses, at least locally. This situation often occurs in the context of civil wars. A power vacuum, for example after a coup, a defeat in war or the withdrawal of occupying forces, can also create conditions under which warlords become possible. If successful, they regularly develop into "violent entrepreneurs" (Georg Elwert), neglecting the political goals they may have originally pursued. Elwert has accordingly examined the emergence of warlords from the point of view of the emergence of "markets of violence" in "failing states".

First Chinese Republic

In the China of the First Republic, warlords were usually members of the lower landed nobility who had risen in the civil service and who, under the rule of the National Party (Chinese Guomindang), ruled over provinces or parts of China as governors more or less independently and with their own domestic power. For example, Liu Wenhui ruled over Sichuan, the province adjoining Tibet to the east, and the Muslim Chinese Hui governor Ma Bufang ruled over Amdo/Qinghai. The actual period of the warlords is considered to be 1916-1927. After the death of the Chinese dictator Yuan Shikai, the authority of the central government disintegrated to such an extent that it was effectively limited to control of the capital Beijing. Thus, whichever warlord dominated Beijing also provided the central government. With the northern campaign of the Guomindang in 1927, Chiang Kai-shek formally unified the country under the new National Chinese government in Nanjing. In fact, however, many warlords simply changed sides instead of being truly defeated militarily. Until the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, the National Government had only limited success in bringing local rulers under control. The latter repeatedly responded to such attempts with uprisings. The warlord Zhang Xueliang, also known as the "Young Marshal", even attempted to kidnap President Chiang Kai-shek on December 12, 1936.