Prof. Ersel Aydınlı of the Department of International Relations has published a new book, “Violent Non-State Actors: From Anarchists to Jihadists,” as part of the Routledge series “Studies on Challenges, Crises and Dissent in World Politics.”
The publisher’s notice provides this description of Prof. Aydınlı’s book:
“Given the importance of violent non-state actors (VNSA) and their evolving role in global politics, dynamic frameworks of analysis are needed both to trace historical trajectories in the evolution of violent non-state actorness and to identify emerging patterns by examining modern-day cases.
“This book examines the defining characteristics and evolutionary dynamics of VNSAs, and introduces a framework based on their autonomy, representation and influence, providing a comparative analysis of the late 19th and early 20th centuries’ anarchist movement and the modern-day jihadist network. It explores the distinct characteristics of the anarchists and jihadists as VNSAs with global potential, not just describing them, but also seeking to understand what they are instances of. With a longitudinal analysis, the book also considers the types of changes that have occurred in the past 150 years and the possible role VNSAs may play in current and future power polity shifts away from states toward non-state actors. It concludes with both theoretical implications for the study of non-state actors and transnational relations, and practical implications for government agencies or private groups tasked with finding ways of countering such violent non-state actors.”