warlord

In this particular dystopia, civilization has crumbled into a desertscape ruled by petty warlords and scavenger gangs.

As John Blackthorne, a shipwrecked English navigator who is taken prisoner, he becomes involved in a battle among warlords seeking to become Japan’s supreme military ruler and falls in love with his married interpreter.

Around them, the Myanmar military and a hotch-potch of rebel armies and warlords are fighting for control of Karen State.

"The war will stop when these warlords feel they have more to lose by continuing fighting, than by doing the sensible thing" Egeland said.

Transactional politics imply cutting deals with coup leaders and warlords whose crimes are their credentials.