Santiago Stocker, Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham
Looking around the world today, there is a glaring gap in both national and international approaches to non-state actor violence. There is little engagement with the idea that susceptible populations will come to support, sympathize with, or tolerate insurgency in the absence of credible authorities. Too often, the United States and like-minded democratic countries fixate on the tactics of violent actors and the uncompromising positions of extreme personalities while ignoring what gives violent actors legitimacy among local populations. This approach often makes foreign assistance ineffectual and sometimes counterproductive, creating suitable conditions for authoritarian systems supported by US competitors, such as Russia and China.
To effectively compete for influence in areas experiencing non-state actor violence and to mitigate its destabilizing effects, the United States must emphasize an approach that addresses the grievances of the populations that enable such actors to be effective.
Appeal of the Alternative Authority
Violent non-state actors cannot be effective solely based on the direct support of hardliners. Rather, these groups must build legitimacy among the populations they control. While some groups rely primarily on coercion of local populations to establish such legitimacy, this is by no means the norm. Coercion-centric approaches are most commonly used by state-sponsored militias. In other instances, violent actors work intentionally to build active support, sympathy, or tolerance among the populations they control.
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