Hi Sam,

Quote Originally Posted by selil View Post
The costs are virtually nill, but there are issues. In a nutshell if you empower these groups that are working in the best interest of the nation state are you not also empowering the delegation of nation state powers? Thereby weakening the beneficiary of the volunteer effort? There are other issues, but as long as they remain in the soft power category and out of the kinetic business most treaties and laws don't apply.
Good points, but I'm not sure how much delegation effect they are having. First off, the nation state has already "delegated" large amounts of sovereignty to trans-national bodies (including private firms). Historically, the US has also delegated an incredible number of sovereign powers to private groups as well (e.g. bounty hunters). I don't think that you an state that the sole beneficiary of the effort is the nation state (which you sort of implied above).

There's another factor playing out in this as well - put simply, nation states are increasingly incompetent at meeting the needs of their people, and many of these needs are now devolved and/or devolving to sub-state groups. This seems to be a fairly long standing trend going back to the late 1960's or so and it seems to be operating across the full spectrum of functions (think neo-tribalism in a globalized context). I think it is pretty much inevitable that groups like this will spring up.

Marc