Striving for Power: Becoming the State vs. Co-opting the State

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Militia groups in the region can either strive to become the state like the Houthis in Yemen who have absorbed the bureaucracy and aim to impose their views as the de facto government or co-opt the state like in Iraq, where militias are recognized by the government and receive significant funding. Hezbollah in Lebanon is a prime example of a militia group successfully co-opting the government to wield power.

Michael Cohen has been testifying in Donald Trump’s hush-money trial. Did the former president’s fixer provide what the prosecution had hoped for? The Middle East has a militia problem. Many of the region’s governments are too weak to keep them down; others simply let them in (10:36). And investigating whether there is more or less sex on the silver screen these days (19:06).

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