Looking for articles on NSAGs

[tconway]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the site but I need some help from you all if possible. I am studying at the University of Ottawa in a new Masters program called Globalization and International Development. I am looking at human security issues, specifically development as a means to security and PRTs.

Anyway, I am doing a presentation on non-state armed groups for one of my classes and need some background readings for the class to read. Any suggestions on good and interesting articles?

Cheers,
TOM

[SWCAdmin]

NSAGs? WTFO? You can surf through here PDQ

http://smallwarsjournal.com/reference/threat.php

[tconway]

Yeah, thanks I did that before posting.

I guess what I need is less of the military/strategic slant and something a bit more general. Having already read Gray, and while I have a background in strategic studies and the military, I know it may not speak to my classmates (without the same background) - this is a development program after all

Any other suggestions?

[Rex Brynen]

Yeah, thanks I did that before posting.

I guess what I need is less of the military/strategic slant and something a bit more general. Having already read Gray, and while I have a background in strategic studies and the military, I know it may not speak to my classmates (without the same background) - this is a development program after all

Any other suggestions?

From opposite ends of the spectrum:

Richard H. Shultz , Douglas Farah, Itamara V. Lochard, Armed Groups: A Tier-One Security Priority

GDI, Negotiating in Practice What is Non-Negotiable in Principle: Development Policy and Armed Non-State Actors

[marct]

Hi Tom,

I guess what I need is less of the military/strategic slant and something a bit more general. Having already read Gray, and while I have a background in strategic studies and the military, I know it may not speak to my classmates (without the same background) - this is a development program after all

Have you checked out the article in the last SWJ entitled The Political Officer as Counter-Insurgent (discussion here)? It is potentially useful for those with either no or an anti-military background. You may also want to look at the CALL Handbook 07-34 PRT Playbook (available here, discussed here).

Part of the problem I suspect you are facing is that some of your classmates cannot comprehend armed non-state groups . If they are like many of my students at Carleton (I'm in Ottawa as well), it's just not "real" to them. One of the things that may well be worthwhile is to give your classmates some readings on the organization of tribal states. Try McAllister's COIN and irregular warfare in Tribal Society, and, if you think they can handle it, chapters 5 and 6 of Marshall Sahlins Stone Age Economics (I think there's a copy in the Ottawa U library).

Marc

[Rex Brynen]

Part of the problem I suspect you are facing is that some of your classmates cannot comprehend armed non-state groups . If they are like many of my students at Carleton (I'm in Ottawa as well), it's just not "real" to them.

Actually, this surprisises me a bit.

Perhaps its because I'm teaching political science--cynical idealists, political scientists--but I can't say that I find this as a general rule. Most of my students are avid consumers of the news (Iraq, Afghanistan, wherever), a few always come from war-affected countries, and most years I teach at least a few with combatants in their extended families. The IDS students are often particularly well informed, having already done work with human rights NGOs, field development work, etc. In fact, the bane of my existence is pop-up questions about arcane non-state groups, particularly in a wifi age when they can check websources and follow breaking news while I'm lecturing (Them: "What do you think about the latest action of the North Timorese Action Front for the Popular Liberation of Sibera, sir?" Me: "Errr, what action?")

Is it an anthropology thing, perhaps? You're so much nicer and less bloodthirsty than we are

[marct]

Hi Rex,

Actually, this surprisises me a bit.

Perhaps its because I'm teaching political science--cynical idealists, political scientists--but I can't say that I find this as a general rule....

I have a suspicion that it is a touch subtler than that. Most of my students also follow the news, but many of them have an emotional (? maybe "emapathic" would be better?) barrier to understanding (a verstehen thing) the motivations involved. They understand (erkenner) the actions, but have no empathic connection with them. Most of their emapathic connections seem to be aimed at the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators of violence in an almost simplistic "any violence is bad" model.

I remember chatting with a former student of mine a couple of years ago who was a member of Hezbollah. BTW, he had joined because Hezbollah was the de facto government in his home town. He just couldn't understand why so many of his classmates couldn't understand other people's need to "defend themselves".

Is it an anthropology thing, perhaps? You're so much nicer and less bloodthirsty than we are

In many ways, I think that the current position held by some of the more vocal of my Anthropology colleagues was foretold by that great American philosopher Tom Lehrer:

We are the folk song army,
Every one of us cares.
We all hate poverty, war, and injustice
Unlike the rest of you squares.

There are innocuous folk songs, yeah,
But we regard 'em with scorn.
The folks who sing 'em have no social conscience,
Why, they don't even care if Jimmy Crack Corn.

If you feel dissatisfaction,
Strum your frustrations away.
Some people may prefer action,
But give me a folk song any old day.

The tune don't have to be clever,
And it don't matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line.
It sounds more ethnic if it ain't good English
And it don't even gotta rhyme... (excuse me: rhyne!)

Remember the war against Franco?*
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs!

So join in the folk song army!
Guitars are the weapons we bring
To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice.
Ready, aim, sing!

Marc

[Ken White]

Be Prepared...

[jcustis]

http://www.tagsproject.org/

I picked the link up at the NGO Security Blog.

[tconway]

Hey guys, thanks very much I appreciate all the help!

I also found a few academic articles about engaging NSAGs through NGOs when states are worried about legitimizing them (this applies more to rebel moviements or similarly politically minded groups of course) which were quite interesting.

[SteveMetz]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the site but I need some help from you all if possible. I am studying at the University of Ottawa in a new Masters program called Globalization and International Development. I am looking at human security issues, specifically development as a means to security and PRTs.

Anyway, I am doing a presentation on non-state armed groups for one of my classes and need some background readings for the class to read. Any suggestions on good and interesting articles?

Cheers,
TOM

Problem is that few analyses take "non state armed groups" as a category. It's just too diverse to provide much rigor. I suspect to do much, you'd need to parse it.

You might look at the work my colleague Max Manwaring has done on fourth generation gangs. I talk a bit about militias and criminal gangs in my Rethinking Insurgency monograph. You might also find useful stuff in Military Review and Parameters.