This book discusses the radical transformation of eastern Congo's political order in the context of apparent armed destruction and state weakness. Looking beyond the dominant paradigms, the author critically assesses the premises of this region's presumed collapse into chaos. He traces violent rule patterns back to a tumultuous history of extra-economic accumulation, armed rebellion and de facto public authority in the margins of regional power plays. Rather than curing the world's ills, the originality of this book lies in its neat focus on cultural and economic uncertainty. It answers the question of what institutional changes are the result of strategies of daily risk management in an environment characterised by violent competition over the right to govern.