Nonstate Actors, Terrorism, and International Security Threats
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.
- Defining Nonstate Actors and Their Global Impact: Overview of nonstate actors, NGOs, and terrorist organizations
- Terrorism: Competing Definitions and Legal Frameworks: Domestic and international terrorism definitions across U.S. agencies
- Uncivil Networks and Organized Crime: Uncivil societies and network-based terrorist cell organization
- Human Trafficking as Modern Slavery: Definition, methods, and global impact of human trafficking
- Arms Control Treaties and Regulatory Gaps: Post-WWII arms control treaties and small arms proliferation
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What makes this paper effective
- Provides concrete examples (ISIS, Boko Haram, 9/11 cell networks) that ground abstract concepts in real international incidents.
- Distinguishes between multiple types of nonstate actors—from legitimate NGOs to terror organizations—showing nuanced understanding of the category.
- Addresses the inherent difficulty in defining terrorism by presenting competing definitions from the FBI, State Department, FEMA, and academic experts, acknowledging legitimate disagreement.
- Connects each topic to international law and state governance, maintaining focus on the international relations dimension throughout.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper uses definitional analysis as its primary method, recognizing that problems in international security often stem from inconsistent or competing definitions. Rather than imposing a single definition, the author documents how different institutions define terrorism and nonstate actors differently, then explains why consensus is elusive. This approach—presenting multiple authoritative perspectives and exploring their implications—is characteristic of policy-oriented international relations scholarship.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized thematically around nonstate actors and international security threats. Section One establishes what nonstate actors are and provides examples ranging from NGOs to ISIS and Boko Haram. Section Two shifts to terrorism definitions, exploring why consensus is difficult. Section Three introduces uncivil networks as a category of organized groups outside mainstream norms. Section Four addresses human trafficking as a criminal nonstate activity. Section Five catalogs arms control treaties but focuses on the gap in small arms regulation. The progression moves from conceptual definition to specific manifestations and regulatory responses.
Defining Nonstate Actors and Their Global Impact
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.
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