Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors

The Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors analyzes the behavior of international nonstate armed actors to inform and prepare policymakers to address emerging and persistent threats.

Foreign Policy

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The increasing power of nonstate armed actors — militants, militias, and criminal groups — at the expense of the state is a highly consequential and complex dynamic in today’s international system. The trend occurs amidst broader shifts worldwide in power distribution and modes of governance, and means that more people depend on illicit economies for basic livelihoods and on nonstate structures for basic security and governance. As criminal and militant actors are empowered and governments are weakened, many states struggle to confront the problem; some even accommodate or coopt such actors. While these dynamics precede the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the pandemic has profoundly exacerbated them.

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Experts

Vanda Felbab-Brown Director - Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors, Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology

Jeffrey Feltman John C. Whitehead Visiting Fellow in International Diplomacy - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology