Global Security Upheaval by Robert Mandel

Author:Robert Mandel [Mandel, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Security (National & International)
ISBN: 9780804786492
Google: I__FtTbN6KkC
Goodreads: 35191733
Publisher: Stanford Security Studies
Published: 2013-04-03T00:00:00+00:00

6

ANALYSIS OF CASE STUDY PATTERNS

The case study findings illuminate overarching patterns about the success and failure of armed nonstate groups and armed nonstate group control attempts, as well as the conditions when armed nonstate groups promote and retard stability, and the additional lessons learned. Although tentative, given their reliance on twelve case studies, these patterns appear to be robust. Because recent history reveals that proper differentiation has not occurred in this regard, the results of this investigation seem salient in helping to refine security policy.

The first step in this analysis—examining the relative success among the major types of armed nonstate groups and armed nonstate group control attempts—enhances comparative understanding of the differences involved. Some winners and some losers emerge from the findings, as summarized in Figure 6.1, which highlights the marked disparities between armed nonstate groups and confirming the need for discrimination among them.

RELATIVE SUCCESS OF ARMED NONSTATE GROUPS

The five major types of armed nonstate groups, whose differences were described in Chapter 3, are not all equally effective in enhancing stability. From a conceptual standpoint, at first glance considerable controversy appears to surround the identification of which groups are best and worst for stability promotion. On one hand, armed nonstate groups that respond to economic incentives and are reasonably accepting of the status quo—criminals and mercenaries—seem to be the most promising. The logic here is that, if an armed nonstate group is status quo oriented and responds to a state’s positive and negative incentives, then it is much more susceptible to outside state influence in its quest for control of particular areas, and it is much more likely through a top-down process to see stability as serving its own self-interest. On the other hand, armed nonstate groups able to combine using fear and terror tactics with attracting respect and sympathy from the affected population in their ideological fervor to pursue non–status quo goals—terrorists and rebels/insurgents—seem to be the most promising (warlords, which have mixed attributes in this regard, fall in neither camp). The logic of this claim is that, if an armed non-state group has coherent ideals for reshaping the world in a non–status quo direction, then through generating fear and respect from the mass public it is much more likely in a bottom-up way to be able to create a stable security environment.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.