Armed Groups - Peter G. Thompson

Armed Groups

The Twenty-First-Century Threat
Buch | Softcover
292 Seiten
2023 | Second Edition
Rowman & Littlefield (Verlag)
978-1-5381-6864-6 (ISBN)
47,35 inkl. MwSt
Armed Groups­ is the most comprehensive text to provide a framework for categorizing the key actors that pose a threat to today’s security arena—terrorists, mercenaries, insurgents, militias, and transnational criminal organizations—and analyzing their characteristics to provide a thorough overview. Drawing on case studies, histories, and a rich, yet underexplored theoretical literature, this study presents students with the tools to methodically examine these often overlooked, but key drivers of violence in the international system.

Additionally, globalization, the privatization of force, and the return of great power competition have altered the security landscape and enhanced armed group threats. These forces have also led to an increasing overlap between conflict and crime, and a growth in the state use of armed group proxies. Coming to terms with armed groups—their objectives, strategies, internal composition, and the environment that fosters them—remains a critical task for practitioners, scholars, and policy makers alike in understanding the changing nature of war.

This second edition, updated throughout, includes new material on the importance of private military companies, the shift to sub-Saharan Africa as an important center of conflict, the return of great power politics, the increased use of social media and advanced technology, and the increasingly criminalized nature of armed groups.

PETER G. THOMPSON is a Professor of International Security Studies in the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University in Washington, DC. He has developed and taught a wide range of International Relations and International Security courses at the undergraduate and graduate level. Peter also teaches in Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and prior to joining the faculty at NDU taught at UCLA, Loyola Marymount University, and Michigan State University. His research has been published in Security Studies, Asian Security, and the Annual Review of Political Science.

1. Introduction

Importance of the Topic

What Are “Armed Groups”?

Book Objectives

Armed Groups and International Relations Theory

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

Recommended Reading

Notes

2. Conflict in the Twenty-First Century

Interstate Conflict Decreasing

The “New War” Paradigm?

Irregular Warfare

Role of Geopolitical and Geostrategic Factors

US Participation in Intrastate Conflicts

Armed-Group Threats to the United States

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

3. What Are Armed Groups?

Distinguishing Between Armed Groups and State Militaries

Common Armed-Group Characteristics

Armed-Group Formation

Challenging the “Nonstate Actor” Label

Discussion Questions

Organization

Membership

Ideology

Objectives

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

4. Armed-Group Archetypes

Insurgents

Terrorists

Transnational Criminal Organizations

Militias

“Commercial” Armed Groups

Evolution, “Hybridization,” and the Crime–Terror Nexus

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

5. Internal Characteristics

Leadership

Organization

Membership

Ideology

Objectives

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

6. External Characteristics

Strategy

Tactics

Strategic Communications

External Support

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

7. Combating Armed Groups

Combating Grievances and the Environment

Military, Political, Legal, and Economic Constraints on Governments

General Countering Strategies

Combating the Armed Group

Conclusion

Discussion Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

8. Conclusion

Armed-Group Adaptation and Evolution

Future Armed-Group Threats

Combating Armed Groups

Three Questions

Recommended Readings

Notes

Erscheinungsdatum
Verlagsort Lanham, MD
Sprache englisch
Maße 153 x 224 mm
Gewicht 426 g
Themenwelt Sozialwissenschaften Politik / Verwaltung Staat / Verwaltung
ISBN-10 1-5381-6864-2 / 1538168642
ISBN-13 978-1-5381-6864-6 / 9781538168646
Zustand Neuware
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