Transnational Actors in War and Peace provides a comparative examination of a range of transnational actors who have been key to the conduct of war and peace promotion, and of how they interact with states and each other. It explores the identities, organization, strategies and influence of transnational actors involved in contentious politics, armed conflict, and peacemaking.
While the study of transnational politics has been a rapidly growing field, to date, the disparate actors have not been analyzed alongside each other, making it difficult to develop a common theoretical framework or determine their influence on international security. This book brings together a diverse set of scholars focused on a range of transnational actors, such as: foreign fighters, terrorists, private military security companies, religious groups, diasporas, NGOs, and women’s peace groups. Malet and Anderson provide the standard for future study of transnational actors in this work intended for those interested in security studies, international relations, conflict resolution, and global governance.
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Transnational Century
David Malet and Miriam J. Anderson
1. Knights of Columbus Catholic Recreation Clubs in Great Britain, 1917–19
Luke Flanagan
2. Transnational Feminist Praxis in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in the Aftermath of the Second World War
Catia Cecilia Confortini
3.Governing Conflict through Transnational Corporations: The Case of Conflict Minerals
Virginia Haufler
4. Beyond the Conflict: Diasporas and Postconflict Government Reconstruction
Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff
5 Exiles and Political Islam: Contrasting Khomeini’s Religious Nationalism with bin Laden’s Violent Globalism
Ariel I. Ahram and John Gledhill
6. Foreign Fighters in the Syrian Civil War
David Malet
7. Mercenaries Gone Legit: Private Security Professionals and Private Military Security Companies as Transnational Actors
Matthew LeRiche
8. Transnational Humanitarian Action and Regime Complexity: The Case of Syria
Phil Orchard
9 Women’s Advocacy Groups in Peace Negotiations
Miriam J. Anderson
10 Containing Conflict: Authoritative Transnational Actors and the Management of Company- Community Conflict
Kate Macdonald
Conclusion: Complex Transnationalism
Miriam J. Anderson and David Malet
Contributors
Index
Reviews
"Overall, the book maintains a unified narrative throughout, is presented clearly, and can be read either as a cohesive whole or by individual chapter. The editors have clearly invested time in ensuring that each chapter speaks to at least one other chapter, thus bringing together ideas examining different aspects of transnationalism both theoretically and empirically [. . . . ] This book would be suitable as both a reference work on transnationalism and an undergraduate reader for an advanced seminar course. Ultimately, it also provides policy value through its numerous empirical examples and applied knowledge from the field and is a valuable read for social scientists concerned with international politics and peace and conflict more generally."—H-Diplo
"Insightful . . . maintains a unified narrative throughout, is presented clearly, and can be read either as a cohesive whole or by individual chapter."—H-Net
"Tightly edited . . . The integration of multiple kinds of transnational actors into a single analytical framework constitutes a significant contribution to the literature."—Choice
"This important book achieves something rare: it effectively connects an apparently eclectic mix of expertise and topics on key issues to uncover hidden commonalities. It will appeal not only to International Relations scholars and policy specialists, but to everyone who wants to understand the changing nature of war and peace in the 21st century"—Ann Florini, Professor of Public Policy, Singapore Management University
"With innovation and verve, this book marries two literatures that should long since have coupled: sociologically-oriented theorizing about transnational NGOs and security-minded analyses of transnational fighters. Both analytic families will prosper from this fertile union, gaining fresh insights on how nonstate actors of all kinds affect war and peace."—Clifford Bob, Professor of Political Science and Raymond J Kelley Endowed Chair of International Relations, Duquesne University
"As this insightful volume demonstrates, the study of transnational actors in world politics, past and present, is alive and well. The editors have put together an eclectic and remarkably wide-ranging collection that reveals the striking diversity of non-state players on the world stage."—Peter Andreas, John Hay Professor of International Studies, Brown University
Contributors
Ariel Ahram Miriam J. Anderson Jennifer M. Brinkerhoff Catia Cecelia Confortini Luke Flanagan John Gledhill Virginia Haufler Matthew LeRiche Kate Macdonald David Malet Phil Orchard
About the Author
David Malet is Director of the Security Policy Studies program of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of Foreign Fighters: Transnational Identity in Civil Conflicts and Biotechnology and International Security.
Miriam J. Anderson is assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University, Canada. She is the author of Windows of Opportunity: How Women Seize Peace Negotiations for Political Change.
