Non-State Challenges in a Re-Ordered World ─ The Jackals of Westphalia

Although a considerable number of books have appeared recently on the future of states facing severe security challenges from non-state actors, there are few treatments of the fate of the state system as a reigning world order and interpretative paradigm. Similarly, there is a sprawling scholarship on violence, crime, and corrupt state rule; yet few have comprehended these challenges as transformative at a global scale and – beyond critiques of state-centrism – as a potential source of alternative legitimacy. This volume challenges "Westphalian conservativism" in a provocative yet plausible manner, suggesting that state-system atrophy may be accelerating faster than expected due to the ubiquity and diversity of unfolding non-state agendas.

The book’s primary intention is to direct attention to potent questions --and accompanying policy challenges -- arising from non-state armed expansion. The contributors explore this through a range of case studies and comparisions within three thematic sections: the first, taking into account how, when, and in what measure state and state-system legitimacy are challenged by non-state violent or criminal deeds; the second, dealing with the nature, effectiveness, and side-effects of different state-mandated reaction to non-state activities; and the third, bringing into focus the ways in which non-state actors can actually be functional to maintaining the state system, even when their main intent is disruptive.

The book provides a current analysis of different armed and violent actors encroaching on the state monopoly of violence. Seeking to spark debate about global political change occasioned by the governance void it will be of interest to students and scholars of global governance, global security and international relations.

Stefano Ruzza is Assistant Professor of Conflict, Security and Statebuilding at the Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Turin. He is also Head of Research of T.wai, the Torino World Affairs Institute.

Anja P. Jakobi is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Politics and International Relations, Royal Holloway, University of London.

Charles Geisler is Professor of Development Sociology at Cornell University.