International Relations
According to the Oxford Bibliographies research, there is not one 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 they have also participated in "international legal processes," which is why Santarelli believes there should be more study of nonstate actors. One scholar claims that nonstate actors include "all entities" that are different from states; or are entities that are operating outside the legal jurisdiction of the government. That definition would include think tanks in the U.S. On the one hand and violent, bloodthirsty extremists such as ISIS, the Taliban and al Qaeda on the other hand (Fisher, 2014).
A typical nonstate actor can also be viewed as a nongovernmental organization (NGO); examples of NGOs would be those organizations association with law enforcement, like the Fellowship of Christian Peace Officers, the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, to name a few. As for the nonstate actor ISIS, a terror-driven nonstate actor, they have seized control of large areas in Syria and Iraq, with a goal of establishing a "caliphate" in Iraq (Fisher, 2014). ISIS goes into a town and often separates the men from the women; the men are taken away and shot to death and the women are made into slaves and wives for the terrorists.
In Nigeria the Islamist group known as Boko Haram kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls, and this nonstate actor is accused of killing more than 1,200 people in less than eight months in 2013 (Fisher). The goals of terrorist-linked nonstate actors vary from group to group, but in general their goals are to: a) kidnap and demand ransoms; b) smuggle arms, narcotics and cigarettes because those items make "lucrative trade" deals; and c) simply kill, rape, burn, and conduct outrageously violent and cruel activities to cause a reign of terror (Fisher, p. 2). When a society is living in fear of violent repression, that society becomes dysfunctional, and that is the goal of many Islamist terrorists; a confused, disrupted, frightened community is more susceptible to the whims of a terrorist group.
TWO: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) explains that there is domestic terrorism and international terrorism. The FBI defines "international terrorism" as involving "violent acts" or acts that are "dangerous to human life" that are unlawful at the federal and state levels (FBI). International terrorism also appears to be meant to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population"; to impact the policies of a government; and to have a horrific impact on a government through "mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping" (FBI).
As to "domestic terrorism," these acts occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. Acts of domestic terrorism violate federal and state law and are dangerous to human life; they appear to be intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population and to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion" (FBI). The federal laws that prohibit terrorism include: 18 U.S.C. § 2332b (any act that is intended to retaliate against the government or intimidate the government is a "federal crime of terrorism"); § 930c (killing or attempting to kill during an attack on a "federal facility with a dangerous weapon"); and § 1114 (attempting to kill or killing officers and employees) (FBI).
Why is terrorism so hard to define? That is probably because there are so many different hostile acts by nonstate actors that qualify as acts of terror; but those acts are committed in a wide variety of ways and hence a definition that fits all acts of terrorism is difficult if not impossible. Oliver Libaw writes in an ABC News story that many Americans aren't really sure what terrorism really is. The U.S. State Department holds that "…only sub-national groups, not states themselves, can commit acts of terrorism" (Libaw, p. 1). The State Department also says violence must be "politically motivated" for it to be terrorism" (Libaw, p. 1). The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) defines terrorism as the illegal use of force for "…purposes of intimidation, coercion or ransom," but doesn't mention that the act has to be politically motivated (Libaw, p. 1).
Richard Betts, the Director of the Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University in New York, explains that there has "never been any consensus definition of terrorism" because people believe that in extreme cases actions are seen as "justified"; for example, the United States bombed civilian targets in WWII (in two extreme cases, Nagasaki and Hiroshima) but those were not seen as terrorism (albeit the hundreds of...
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