Beyond Pain: Coercing Violent Non-State Actors

By National War College

Suicide bombers are inspired and coached to their victims by al Qaeda and its franchises in Afghanistan, Iraq, Algeria, Yemen and beyond. Somali pirates disrupt shipping in the Indian Ocean, kidnapping civilians and extorting governments. Warlords terrorize the creeks of the Niger Delta as part of a "blood oil" trade. A quasi-religious drug cartel, La Familia, decapitates its way to control of Mexican drug trafficking routes. These violent non-state actors (VNSA), or armed groups, and others pervade the global conflict landscape. These conflicts pit nation-states against armed groups working to exploit, subvert and overthrow the international system; conflicts fueled by globalization's dark dynamics and punctuated by unconscionable violence against innocents; conflicts induced by true believers and hardened criminals armed with low- and high-tech weapons of mass destruction and disruption. In such conflicts, do we have options for using military force short of war? Are such adversaries susceptible to coercion? If so, how might a coercive strategy work?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1502863154
• ISBN13: 9781502863157
• Release Date: October 2014
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 38 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.5" x 11.0"