NON-STATE ARMED GROUPS IN LIQUID MODERNITY
Abstract
This article explores why non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have emerged as more adaptable, identity-liquid, and transnational in today’s conflicts, and why state reactions to them are increasingly delayed and reactive. Based on Zygmunt Bauman’s “liquid modernity,” the research constructs a mid-range “liquid security” approach that connects macro-conditions such as the dissolution of institutions, crises of legitimacy/representation, acceleration and connectivity, and the institutionalization of uncertainty to three observable NSAG behavioral traits as ‘exceptional organizational flexibility, liquid identity/narrative, and transnationality that erases boundaries.’ It contends that traditional IR paradigms are challenged because they rely on increasingly blurred concepts. The main argument is not that liquid modernity is a theory of NSAGs but that it represents the underlying social logic that explains why the traditional list of drivers (weak states, war economies, sponsorship, technology) is now simultaneously present and mutually reinforcing. The article concludes that security governance needs to become more cross-sectoral, real-time, and resilience-focused to better address “liquid” threats rather than treating them as anomalies.
Keywords
Liquid Modernity, Liquid Security, Non-State Armed Groups (Nsags), Governance Vacuums, Networked Violence
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