PUB: Living by the Gun in Chad

Laurence Radford Discussion

Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants, Impunity and State Formation

Marielle Debos


How do people live in a country that has experienced rebellions and state-organized repressions for decades and that is still marked by routine forms of violence and impunity? What do combatants do when they are not mobilized for war? Drawing on over ten years of fieldwork conducted in Chad, Marielle Debos explains how living by the gun has become both an acceptable form of political expression and an everyday occupation.

Contrary to the popular association of violence and chaos, she shows that these fighters continue to observe rules, frontiers, and hierarchies, even as their allegiances shift between rebel and government forces, and as they drift between Chad, Libya, Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Going further, she explores the role of the globalized politico-military entrepreneurs and highlights the long involvement of the French military in the country. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that ending the war is not enough. The issue is ending the 'interwar' which is maintained and reproduced by state violence.

Combining ethnographic observation with in-depth theoretical analysis, Living by the Gun in Chad is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the intersections of war and peace.

Marielle Debos is an associate professor in political science at the Université Paris Ouest Nanterre, and a member of the Institute for Social Sciences of Politics (ISP).