Drug Smuggling and the Stability of Fragile States. The Diverging Trajectories of Mali and Niger

What is the impact of smuggling on political ordering and stability in fragile states? We investigate how transnational drug smuggling networks affect protection and extraction dynamics, and drive divergent political stability trajectories in fragile countries that otherwise exhibit structural similiarities–i.e. Mali and Niger. Building on ethnographic evidence, we explore the hypothesis that distinctive peace- and state-building strategies result in different degrees of resilience vis-à-vis potentially destabilising factors. To explain variation in political stability we introduce the concept of ‘hybrid state-sponsored protection racket’, in which non-state armed actors are coopted in a protection assemblage under the tutelage of the state.