Killing Our Way to Victory: Non-State Actors, Normative Frameworks, and Unrestrained Violence
Abstract
Thesis: While contemporary norms restrain violence in war, states can employ unrestrained violence against non-state actors whose atrocities place them outside the normative framework that governs the behavior of civilized states. Discussion: Despite their materiel and technical superiority, Western militaries have failed to defeat non-state actors in Lebanon, Iraq, Nigeria, and in other conflicts around the world. Part of this reflects diminished technical barriers to entry in the military market, external sources of support, but a historical analysis reveals that states and rulers have abandoned a mechanism of using alternate normative frameworks, one to govern violence against states and one to govern violence against non-state adversaries. The former is a restrained framework governed by norms of appropriateness and consequence, while the latter is governed only by norms of consequence. Contemporary international law reinforces the traditional appropriateness norms, but in two recent cases non-state adversaries committed atrocities of such magnitude that Russia and Sri Lanka adopted policies of unrestrained violence against Chechen separatists and the Tamil Tigers respectively. While the durability of the post-war settlements remains uncertain, these cases offer a glimpse of a "back-to-the-future" mechanism by which states might employ unrestrained violence against adversaries who have de-legitimized themselves. Conclusion: States will continue to confront non-state adversaries on the battlefield, and will need to consider the normative constraints that apply to conflict against non-state adversaries. When challenged by criminal and separatist adversaries whose actions conform to contemporary norms of state behavior, states will need to work within that normative framework and apply military and diplomatic resources in accordance with international law.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 30, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1175893
Entities
People
- Joel M. Iams