Violent Non-State Actors in Contemporary World Politics - a volume edited by Dr. Klejda Mulaj - has as its overarching theme the relations of violent non-state actors (VNSAs) with the state. In exploring the correlation between VNSAs and the environment that creates and nurtures them, this project seeks to unravel conditions which give rise to violent non-state actors and afterwards sustain them with a view to identifying suitable policy responses.
Violent non-state actors are non-state armed groups that resort to organized violence as a tool to achieve their goals. Whereas non-violent actors have received extensive attention in the literature, violent non-state actors have only recently attracted sustained interest. Yet, given that our era is being defined by a US-led war on terrorism, the understanding of violent non-state actors (some of which are targets of the said war) is crucial in order to ensure that sound policy responses are devised and implemented.
