ABSTRACT
Armed groups, including terrorists, warlords and insurgencies, are becoming increasingly significant actors in international relations. For most of the Cold War armed groups acted locally or if they acted internationally, they usually did so via another state. However, by the end of the Cold War, armed groups started having international lives of their own in which they interacted on a political, economic or military level across state borders at will.1 This ‘globalization of insurgency’ has been attributed to multiple factors, including the improvement in transport technology, proliferation of information and communication technology, deregulation of international markets, and an increase in migration which have allowed many types of non-state actors (NSAs), including armed groups, to break their local bonds.2 Although, this internationalization was most evident initially in the case of terrorists groups, it has come to include other types of armed groups such as warlord organizations and insurgencies.
