WHAT IS A NON-STATE ACTOR?

22 January 2010
 ARE WE SURE WHAT A STATE ACTOR
IS?
• Modern conception:
• A Government
• (An inter-governmental institution, esp. if it
has its own legal base)
• Military forces maintained by a government,
police, civilian officials etc
• (Local government authorities)
 BUT.....
• Historical complications: partial/unclear
statehood, armies used to be commercially
recruited, some officials worked as ‘farmers’
• Ethical complications: state authorities not
necessarily ‘recognized’, legitimate, or
generally ‘good’
• Practical complications: what is called a
‘government’ may not act like one or be the
real one in a ‘weak’ state
 PRIVATIZATION ETC
• A state authority may ‘sell’ a function that it
formerly controlled - privatization
• It may share the costs with private funders but
keep a share in control – Public-Private
Partnership
• It may purchase a service from a non-state
supplier rather than doing it itself –
outsourcing
• It may delegate tasks ad hoc
 TYPES OF NON-STATE ACTORS
• [Supranational organizations]
• (Multinational) business corporations
• Terrorist and criminal networks
• Factions in an internal conflict
• (Multinational) NGOs
• (Multinational) civil society networks
• Ordinary people – you and me
 TYPICAL NON-STATE FEATURES
• Self-motivating and self-resourcing
• Free choice of structure or no structure
• (often) ‘transnational’ operation/impact:
-information access
-information flows
-equipment+technology access
-cross-border movement
-network building and ‘franchising’
 TYPICAL PROBLEMS OF CONTROL
• National and international laws do not ‘bite’
unless drafted to apply to such actors (and to
take account of their characteristics)
• Problems in applying direct coercion,
deterrence or ‘defeat’
• Problems of direct negotiation+agreement
• Problems of tracking and controlling resource
flows (multinationals, money laundering,
terrorist finance, gun running etc)
 ON THE OTHER HAND....
• Non-state security activity can:
- Make up for weaknesses of non-
functioning state, empower individuals
- Defend against a dysfunctional state
- Support and supplement the state esp in
newer security dimensions (+ subsidiarity)
- Find transnational solutions for
transnational/global processes (modernity,
flexibility)
- Share and ease resource burdens
 ‘GOOD’ OR ‘BAD’?
• What is our instinctive classification of
- Multinationals?
- Business in general?
- Terrorist groups and networks?
- Criminals and their networks?
- National and international NGOS?
- National and international civil society
networks: a) religious, b) other?
- Individuals playing a security role?
 TESTCASE A: A CIVIL WAR
• Possible roles of multinational business
• Possible roles of local business
• Possible roles for terrorists
• Possible roles for various kinds of criminals
• Possible roles for non-state armed groups
• Possible roles for NGOs, external+national
• Possible roles for civil society groups
• Possible roles for families+individuals
TESTCASE B: A BIG NATURAL DISASTER
• Roles for multinationals?
• Roles for other business?
• Roles for terrorists?
• Roles for criminals?
• Roles for NGOs?
• Roles for civil society groups?
• Roles for individuals?’