ABSTRACT
NSAs existed long before states. They have continued to exist during the relatively new era of statist hegemony, and all evidence suggests that they will continue to play a role, arguably a growing one, in global affairs. Although debate will certainly continue over whether NSAs will ever supersede states in terms of power and influence, there is no question that NSAs have proven their capacity to remain a constant, influential actor in global affairs. NSA actorness cannot and should not, therefore, be ignored. It is also evident that non-state actorness is evolving, and the evolution of NSAs is helping to restructure global politics. These ‘sovereignty-free’ actors are not only able to act autonomously, but also to act with a huge potential for innovative and evolutionary capacity, giving them the potential to force expansion in a political universe that was previously shaped by mostly statist practices. A transnationally expanding political universe, in return, enlarges the political and physical contexts that enable even further autonomy, representation, and influence for NSAs. In other words, power, both in terms of its nature and the means for accessing it, is also transforming; and human-centric (as opposed to state-centric) entities, both individuals and groups, are becoming increasingly powerful. In terms of their means and mechanisms of power, violent NSAs in particular have clearly not yet reached their limits-consider the frightening but as yet unmaterialized possibility of combining asymmetric strategies and approaches with the means of nuclear weapons. With non-state armament still in its youth, we cannot yet know the limits of violent non-state actorness potential, for using-or misusing-power. The main purpose of this book was to provide a framework for evaluating the global political potential-or actorness-of violent non-state actors (VNSAs). While past literature has provided critically important and useful ideas for how to define and categorize VNSAs and their relation with the state, they are limited when trying to assess these actors’ potential role in global politics. The Autonomy, Representation and Influence (ARI) framework presented in this book is aimed specifically at evaluating the global political potential of violent non-state actors, defined here as all armed groups that are not fully and directly under the consistent control of any particular state. ‘VNSA’ includes therefore groups ranging from insurgents and warlords to terrorists and transnational criminals.
