IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/gigawp/279790.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Coping with complexity: Dealing with non-state armed actors

Author

Listed:
  • Deepen, Yannick
  • Kurtenbach, Sabine

Abstract

Non-state armed actors (NSAAs) come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including warlordled groups, insurgencies, militias, and organised-crime syndicates to name just the most prominent examples hereof. In war or lower-level armed conflict, as well as violence-prone contexts, these groups pose acute problems for peacebuilding, democratic governance, and sustainable development. They control resources and territories, as well as compete, cooperate, or align with political and economic elites both within and beyond the state to promote the unstable status quo that serves their interests. Various challenges arise when dealing with NSAAs. Prevailing strategies vary between repression, co-optation, and submission to the rule of law. This analysis maps cross-regional trends regarding NSAAs based on available datasets. On this basis we develop a typology for NSAAs and a conceptual frame for their transformation. We then apply this to three paradigmatic case studies - Colombia, Mali, the Philippines - and formulate recommendations for the designing of improved strategies vis-à-vis development cooperation and other external actors

Suggested Citation

  • Deepen, Yannick & Kurtenbach, Sabine, 2023. "Coping with complexity: Dealing with non-state armed actors," GIGA Working Papers 337, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:279790
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/279790/1/1869956370.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Haass, Felix & Ottmann, Martin, 2017. "Profits from Peace: The Political Economy of Power-Sharing and Corruption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 60-74.
    2. Jean-Paul Azam, 2001. "The Redistributive State and Conflicts in Africa," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 38(4), pages 429-444, July.
    3. Roger Mac Ginty & Oliver Richmond, 2013. "The Local Turn in Peace Building: a critical agenda for peace," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(5), pages 763-783.
    4. Gillies, Allan & Collins, John & Soderholm, Alexander, 2019. "Addressing the development implications of illicit economies: the rise of a policy and research agenda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 100327, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, 2005. "Resource Rents, Governance, and Conflict," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 49(4), pages 625-633, August.
    6. Marina Ottaway, 2002. "Rebuilding State Institutions in Collapsed States," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 33(5), pages 1001-1023, November.
    7. Dancy, Geoff, 2018. "Deals with the Devil? Conflict Amnesties, Civil War, and Sustainable Peace," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(2), pages 387-421, April.
    8. Yehuda Magid & Justin Schon, 2018. "Introducing the African Relational Pro-Government Militia Dataset (RPGMD)," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(4), pages 801-832, July.
    9. Almohamad, Selman & Kirchschlager, Markus & Kurtenbach, Sabine, 2020. "Peacebuilding after war and violence - Neighbourhood matters," GIGA Working Papers 324, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.
    10. Magaloni, Beatriz & Franco-Vivanco, Edgar & Melo, Vanessa, 2020. "Killing in the Slums: Social Order, Criminal Governance, and Police Violence in Rio de Janeiro," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 114(2), pages 552-572, May.
    11. Lessing, Benjamin & Willis, Graham Denyer, 2019. "Legitimacy in Criminal Governance: Managing a Drug Empire from Behind Bars," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 113(2), pages 584-606, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pierfrancesco Rolla & Patricia Justino, 2022. "The social consequences of organized crime in Italy," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-106, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Bodea, Cristina & Higashijima, Masaaki & Singh, Raju Jan, 2016. "Oil and Civil Conflict: Can Public Spending Have a Mitigation Effect?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-12.
    3. Luc Désiré Omgba & Désiré Avom & Dieudonné Mignamissi, 2021. "Cabinet size, power-sharing and ethnic exclusion in Africa," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 47-64, March.
    4. Blattman, Christopher & Lessing, Benjamin & Tobon, Santiago & Duncan, Gustavo, 2021. "Gang rule: Understanding and Countering Criminal Governance," SocArXiv 5nyqs, Center for Open Science.
    5. Jose Cuesta & Mansoob Murshed, 2008. "The Micro-foundations of Social Contracts, Civil Conflicts and International Peace-Making," Research Working Papers 8, MICROCON - A Micro Level Analysis of Violent Conflict.
    6. Fernando Lopez-Castellano & Roser Manzanera-Ruiz & Carmen Lizárraga, 2019. "Deinstitutionalization of the State and Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neoinstitutionalist Analysis of Development," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 51(3), pages 418-437, September.
    7. Gearoid Millar, 2021. "Ambition and ambivalence: Reconsidering positive peace as a trans-scalar peace system," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 58(4), pages 640-654, July.
    8. Blume, Laura Ross, 2021. "Narco Robin Hoods: Community support for illicit economies and violence in rural Central America," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    9. Jung-In Jo & Hyun Jin Choi, 2019. "Enigmas of grievances about inequality: Effects of attitudes toward inequality and government redistribution on protest participation," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 22(4), pages 348-368, December.
    10. Badeeb, Ramez Abubakr & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Clark, Jeremy, 2017. "The evolution of the natural resource curse thesis: A critical literature survey," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 123-134.
    11. Pedro Naso & Erwin Bulte & Tim Swanson, 2017. "Can there be benefits from competing legal regimes? The impact of legal pluralism in post-conflict Sierra Leone," CIES Research Paper series 56-2017, Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute.
    12. Samantha Melis & Raymond Apthorpe, 2020. "The Politics of the Multi-Local in Disaster Governance," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 8(4), pages 366-374.
    13. Joseph Keneck Massil, 2015. "Economie constitutionnelle en Afrique: analyse empirique du changement de l’article sur la limitation de mandat des présidents," Working Papers hal-04141384, HAL.
    14. Christoph Zürcher, 2022. "Evidence on aid (in)effectiveness in highly fragile states: A synthesis of three systematic reviews of aid to Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan, 2008-21," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-160, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Francesco Caselli & Wilbur John Coleman II, 2013. "On The Theory Of Ethnic Conflict," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11, pages 161-192, January.
    16. Sam Barrett, 2015. "Subnational Adaptation Finance Allocation: Comparing Decentralized and Devolved Political Institutions in Kenya," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 118-139, August.
    17. Azam, Jean-Paul, 2008. "Macroeconomic Agenda for Fiscal Policy and Aid Effectiveness in Post-Conflict Countries," IDEI Working Papers 539, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    18. Sara Balestri & Mario A. Maggioni, 2021. "This Land Is My Land! Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Conflict Events in Sub-Saharan Africa," Defence and Peace Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(4), pages 427-450, May.
    19. Wang, Rong & Zameer, Hashim & Feng, Yue & Jiao, Zhilun & Xu, Li & Gedikli, Ayfer, 2019. "Revisiting Chinese resource curse hypothesis based on spatial spillover effect: A fresh evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    20. Scott Gates, 2002. "Recruitment and Allegiance," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 46(1), pages 111-130, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    non-state armed actors; armed conflict; resources; violence; peacebuilding;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:gigawp:279790. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/dueiide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.