By Any Other Name: Challenging Non-State Armed Groups Ontologies

Abstract

Existing terms for non-state armed groups (NSAGs) such as terrorist, militia, insurgent or guerrilla poorly explain the realities of NGAG capabilities and behaviors. This obscures the roles and impacts of these organizations by illogically confining them to poorly delineated ontologies. Using Organizational Theory to code ten different NSAG categories, and then comparing their characteristics, we can see that there is significant attribute overlap between different NSAGs, and that some labels are effectively synonyms resulting from academic trends. Moreover, by using the same methodology to code for Lebanese Hizballah, the Irish Republican Army, The Islamic State and Mara Salvatrucha, we can see that none of these organizations comfortably fit into existing ontologies, and that their commonality with different NSAG categories changes across both time and space. This work sets the stage for a reimagining of NSAG academic literature and creates the basis for a model of non-state violence that is more inclusive and applicable to existing NSAG problem sets.