Uganda, Feb. 10 -- President Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Museveni has a first-rate grasp of modern statecraft, but he also presides over an egregious form of state decay and dysfunction. From very early on, as a university student, Mr Museveni imbibed and embraced the question of violence as a core feature of managing society, the uses and misuses of coercive force. His path to power was cultivated via war.

In this, he understood the central fulcrum of power and authority as force and coercion but which had to be tempered with rhetoric, charisma and persuasion. A successful guerrilla military campaign required a political philosophy, an articulate political programme and rootedness in civilian power. While guns and battle strength were critical, ...