Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The use of violence by non-state actors is not a new feature of the international security environment, yet theories of IR have had little to say about the role of non-state actors who use violence. This paper sets out a framework for analyzing the activities of non-state actors who use violence by proposing that non-state actors draw on a common set of strategies of transnational mobilization as a means of projecting power in the international system when they violently challenge the political status quo. Borrowing from the literatures on social movements and contentious politics, the paper discusses three strategies used by non-state political entrepreneurs and then traces how they were used in two cases of violence conflict: the Algerian War of Liberation (1954-1962) and the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey (1984-2000).