The Romance of Non-state Actors

Abstract

The issue of non-state actors — NSAs — presents a multiple challenge, and hence opportunity, for the study of international relations. The end of the Cold War has occasioned, in the public domain, a global enthusiasm for transnational civil society - but also a questioning of the role of established NGOs within this new context. In theoretical terms the ‘non-state’ presents a two-sided challenge — on the one hand, to what is conventionally termed a ‘state-centric’ approach, on the other to an approach increasingly espoused which sees structures, be they traditional strategic or recently enhanced economic ones, as the prime locus of power and change. Sceptics of both state-centric and structuralist camps doubt the efficacy, and hence relevance, of the ‘non-state’ actors. This contemporary debate echoes earlier concerns. In the classic, and ill-tempered, debate between James Rosenau and Fred Northedge in the 1970s, Rosenau’s claims as to a new transnational world were mocked at by Northedge: the International Tiddlywinks Federation counted for little in a world of armed states (Northedge 1976). Equally Susan Strange, from a liberal structuralist perspective, and Marxist writers from that of economic structuralism, question how much is achieved by the NSA. ‘How many divisions have the NGOs?’ one might ask, echoing Stalin’s dismissive question about the Pope.