Globalization's Bastards: Illegitimate Non-State Actors in International Law

Abstract

The international system has great difficulty in dealing with illegitimate non-state actors such as transnational terrorist groups and organized crime syndicates. This is due to two main factors: the quality and quantity of influence these illegitimate actors have obtained in an era of globalization, and the fact that international law considers only individual criminals and terrorists as subjects, rather than the entire illegitimate enterprise, and does not adequately link individuals, enterprises and states to more nuanced and complex forms of sponsorship of illegal activities. This work offers an outline for tools that should be embedded in the fabric of international law and agreements, to sustain credibility against illegal non-state actors, to hold accountable  sponsors of illegality and to reinforce the legitimacy of globalization.

Notes

 1. Arguably for the first time, at least since President Jefferson waged war against the Barbary pirates in 1801.

 2. See, e.g., Alvin Toffler's Power Shift (New York: Bantam, 1990), or Jessica Tuchman Matthews’ article of the same name in Foreign Affairs (Jan./Feb. 1997).

 3. See generally Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (London: Victor Gollancz, 1998).

 4. Joseph S. Nye, Jr, The Paradox of American Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p.74.

 5. Joseph S. Nye, Jr, The Paradox of American Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p.60.

 6. Thomas Risse, ‘Transnational Actors and World Politics’, in Walter Carlsnaes et  al. (eds), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2002), pp.255–6.

 7. Thomas Risse, ‘Transnational Actors and World Politics’, in Walter Carlsnaes et  al. (eds), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2002), pp.255–6.

 8. Thomas Risse, ‘Transnational Actors and World Politics’, in Walter Carlsnaes et  al. (eds), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2002), p.225.

 9. Thomas Risse, ‘Transnational Actors and World Politics’, in Walter Carlsnaes et  al. (eds), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage Publications, 2002).

10. Risse, p.260.

11. Risse, p.260.

12. Nye, p.47.

13. Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (London: Macmillan, 1977), pp.264–74.

14. Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics (London: Macmillan, 1977), p.264.

15. See, e.g., A.T. Kearney, ‘Measuring Globalization: Economic Reversals, Forward Momentum.’ Foreign Policy, Vol.54 (March/Aprril 2004), p.141.

16. Defense Science Board, Final Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Globalization and Security (Washington, DC: Defense Science Board, 1999), p.5.

17. Defense Science Board, Final Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Globalization and Security (Washington, DC: Defense Science Board, 1999), p.68.

18. See Hoffman, pp.68–86.

19. Brian Jenkins, ‘International Terrorism: A New Mode of Conflict’, in David Carlton and Carlo Schaerf (eds), International Terrorism and World Security (Los Angeles, CA: Crescent Publications, 1975), p.15.

20. Yonah Alexander, ‘Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century: Threats and Response’, DePaul Business Law Journal (2000). See also Hoffman, p.68 (‘The advent of … modern, international terrorism occurred on 22 July 1968.’)

21. Hoffman, pp.67–8.

22. Hoffman, p.68.

23. Hoffman, p.204.

24. Hoffman, p.91.

25. Hoffman.

26. Jenkins, p.15.

27. David Rapoport has termed this a ‘second wave’ a modern terrorism. David Rapoport, ‘Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions’, American Political Science Review, Vol.78, No.3 (1984), pp.658–77.

28. Alexander, p.69.

29. Hoffman, pp.87–90.

30. Rapoport, p.659, quoted in Hoffman, p.89.

31. Richard Falkenrath et  al., America's Achilles Heel (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1998), p.35.

32. Hoffman, pp.121–7.

33. The Third World War being the Cold War, also a war of ideals.

34. R. James Woolsey, address at the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 16November 2002.

35. R. James Woolsey, address at the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, 16November 2002.

36. John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt, ‘Fighting the Network War’, Wired, December 2001.

37. See Walter Laqueur, The Age of Terrorism (Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Co., 1987), pp.48–51.

38. Nye, pp.66–7.

39. Laqueur.

40. Nye, p.75.

41. Nye, p.74.

42. Nye, p.53.

43. Anne-Marie Slaughter et  al., The Challenge of Non-State Actors, 98th American Society of International Law Proceedings, 1998, p.24.

44. Risse, p.274.

45. Slaughter, pp.22–3.

46. Risse, p.276.

47. Slaughter, pp.22–3.

48. Lori Damrosch et  al., International Law: Cases and Materials (St Paul, MN: West Group, 2001), p.1314.

49. Slaughter, p.33.

50. United States Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2004), p.85.

51. Jack Goldstone, e-mail exchange with author, 2002.

52. Robert J. Beck and Anthony Clark Arend, ‘“Don't Tread on Us”: International Law and Forcible State Responses to Terrorism’, Wisconsin Intersnational Law Journal, Vol.12 (1994), pp.153, 164.

53. United States Department of State, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2002).

54. Gregory M. Travalio, ‘Terrorism, International Law, and the Use of Military Force’, Wisconsin International Law Journal, Vol.18 (2000), pp.145, 150.

55. This taxonomy is taken from ‘States and Terror Groups: Progress in Research Design’, an unclassified draft work in which the author was a primary participant. A copy of the draft findings of the work is on file with the author.

56. Risse, p.260.

57. See e.g. Moises Naim, ‘The Five Wars of Globalization’, Foreign Policy, January/February 2003, p.35.