This paper examines the definition and impact of nonstate actors in international relations, including terrorist organizations like ISIS and Boko Haram, as well as nongovernmental organizations. It discusses the difficulty of defining terrorism across domestic and international contexts, analyzes uncivil networks that operate outside mainstream social norms, addresses human trafficking as modern slavery, and reviews arms control treaties since World War II, highlighting the persistent gap in regulating small arms proliferation.
According to Oxford Bibliographies research, there is no single specific definition of "nonstate actors" that fits all situations. Nonstate actors are defined in relation to international law, because they are "often able to impact legal values and must accordingly be regulated" (Santarelli, 2005). Throughout history, nonstate actors have impacted international law and have also participated in international legal processes, which is why scholars believe there should be more study of nonstate actors.
One definition describes nonstate actors as "all entities" that are different from states or are entities operating outside the legal jurisdiction of the government. That definition would include think tanks in the United States on one hand and violent extremist organizations such as ISIS, the Taliban, and al Qaeda on the other (Fisher, 2014). A typical nonstate actor can also be viewed as a nongovernmental organization (NGO); examples include organizations associated with law enforcement, such as the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.
ISIS, a terror-driven nonstate actor, has seized control of large areas in Syria and Iraq with the goal of establishing a "caliphate" in Iraq (Fisher, 2014). The organization's tactics are brutal: it enters towns and often separates men from women; the men are taken away and executed, and the women are made into slaves and wives for the terrorists. In Nigeria, the Islamist group Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls and is accused of killing more than 1,200 people in less than eight months in 2013.
The goals of terrorist-linked nonstate actors vary from group to group, but in general they aim to kidnap and demand ransoms; smuggle arms, narcotics, and cigarettes because those items generate lucrative trade deals; and engage in violence to create a reign of terror (Fisher, 2014). When a society lives in fear of violent repression, that society becomes dysfunctional. This dysfunction is precisely the goal of many Islamist terrorists: a confused, disrupted, and frightened community is more susceptible to the demands of a terrorist group.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation distinguishes between domestic and international terrorism. The FBI defines "international terrorism" as involving violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are unlawful at the federal and state levels. International terrorism also appears to be meant to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; impact the policies of a government; and have a catastrophic impact on a government through mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping (FBI, 2006).
Domestic terrorism encompasses acts that occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. These acts violate federal and state law, are dangerous to human life, and appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population and to influence government policy by intimidation or coercion (FBI, 2006). Federal laws that prohibit terrorism include 18 U.S.C. § 2332b (any act intended to retaliate against or intimidate the government is a "federal crime of terrorism"); § 930c (killing or attempting to kill during an attack on a federal facility with a dangerous weapon); and § 1114 (attempting to kill or killing federal officers and employees).
Why is terrorism so difficult to define? This challenge likely stems from the wide variety of hostile acts by nonstate actors that qualify as terrorism; these acts are committed in many different ways, making a definition that encompasses all acts of terrorism difficult if not impossible. Oliver Libaw writes in an ABC News story that many Americans are uncertain about what terrorism actually is. The U.S. State Department holds that "only sub-national groups, not states themselves, can commit acts of terrorism" and that violence must be "politically motivated" for it to constitute terrorism (Libaw, 2014). However, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines terrorism as the illegal use of force for "purposes of intimidation, coercion or ransom" without requiring political motivation (Libaw, 2014).
Richard Betts, Director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, explains that there has never been consensus on the definition of terrorism because people believe that in extreme cases actions are justified. For example, the United States bombed civilian targets in World War II, including Nagasaki and Hiroshima, but these acts were not classified as terrorism despite the hundreds of thousands killed. The rationale was that because America had been drawn into a war with "aggressor nations" and Japan had bombed the United States first, America was justified in unleashing these destructive weapons. In other words, the bombings were considered an act of justice rather than terrorism (Libaw, 2014).
Uncivil networks form when groups engage in actions deemed less than wholesome and civil by members of the majority in any society. Conservative pundit Henry Lamb called gay rights activists "uncivil" for "shouting down a Christian demonstration against gay marriage in San Francisco" (Glasius, 2009). Conversely, the Cato Institute criticized environmental activists opposed to genetically modified organisms and large dam projects as "the Uncivil Civil Society" (Glasius, 2009). Some wear the "uncivil society" label as a badge of honor, suggesting that uncivil societies are any groups that "threaten the status quo" (Glasius, 2009).
Violence is not always part of an uncivil society. According to Glasius, a fundamentalist organization with "inflexible doctrines" that attempts to impose its will on other groups could be considered uncivil. Networks often form when the core leadership of another organization is destroyed or becomes the focus of intense scrutiny. For example, when al Qaeda leadership planned the attack on the United States, it made arrangements for the hijackers through a network of cells in Germany, the United States, and elsewhere (Arquilla, 2009). There was no single central command center, but rather a series of cells in a network that carried out the terrorism on September 11, 2001.
Human trafficking, very simply put, is a modern form of slavery. Criminal organizations that recruit, abduct, transport, harbor, transfer, sell, or receive persons through "force, coercion, fraud or deception" are human traffickers (Harris, 2011). Some humans are forced into prostitution or forced to perform sexual services, while others are forced into domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop labor, and other activities, making them victims of human trafficking.
The impacts on society when this crime is committed are significant. One in five victims of human trafficking are children, and two-thirds of the world's human trafficking victims are women (UNODC, 2012). Some humans enslaved by traffickers are used for organ removal, because selling human livers and other organs on the black market is extremely lucrative (UNODC, 2012). This criminal enterprise represents one of the most severe violations of human rights in the contemporary world.
"Post-WWII arms control treaties and small arms proliferation"
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