nonstate actor

nonstate actor

English

Alternative forms

• non-state actor
• non state actor

Noun

nonstate actor (plural nonstate actors)

1. An organization or other group whose behavior significantly affects political, economic, or strategic interactions between countries or major events within a country, but that is not itself a recognized country or a representative of a recognized country.
   • 2001 October 31, Tony Karon, "Halloween Word for the Pundits: Quagmire," Time (retrieved 24 May 2018):

     Nobody's particularly optimistic that the Afghan civil war that began almost a decade ago is going to end any time soon. […] [T]his is a new type of war against a non-state actor, in which the definitions, strategies and yardsticks of all previous conflicts no longer apply.

   • 2004 April 5, Douglas Jehl and David E. Sanger, "New to the Job, Rice Focused On More Traditional Threats," New York Times (retrieved 24 May 2018):

     “It wasn't until after Sept. 11 that most of us realized that for the first time in human history,” Mr. Blacker said, “a nonstate actor, a group of religious extremists at the very bottom of the international system, had the capability to inflict devastating damage on the very pinnacle of the international system.”

   • 2013 Winter, Robert J. Bunker, "Defeating Violent Nonstate Actors," Strategic Studies Institute—U.S. Army War College (retrieved 24 May 2018):

     The threats represented by violent nonstate actors are as old as the earliest states. Bandits, raiders, and pirates have plagued civilized peoples around the globe for millennia.

   • 2017 March 13, Charlotte England, "News media do under-report some terror attacks," Independent (UK) (retrieved 24 May 2018):

     [T]he Global Terrorism Database (GTD) […] defines terrorism as “the threatened or actual use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.”