Book review: Non-State Challenges in a Re-Ordered World: The Jackals of Westphalia
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836717701968 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836717701968
Cooperation and Conflict
2017, Vol. 52(2) 1 –2
© The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/0010836717701968
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Book review
STEFANO RUZZA, ANJA JAKOBI AND CHARLES GEISLER, Non-State Challenges in a
Re-Ordered World: The Jackals of Westphalia. London: Routledge, 2016. ISBN: 9781138838130,
Hardcover, £90.00.
Within International Relations (IR) literature there are few assertions more contentious
than the idea that the state has already, is currently, or will soon slip from its assumed
status as the primary actor in global affairs. To argue in support of that assertion chal-
lenges central tenets of the field and must be attempted with both the subtlety of nuanced
theory and the force of empirical evidence. While this volume from Stefano Ruzza, Anja
Jakobi and Charles Geisler does not cover all of the potential aspects of this issue (and
what single volume could?), it does provide a persuasive description of the ongoing rea-
lignment of global forces via the violence of non-state actors. Challenges to the
Westphalian system, the volume argues, come in three forms; challenges to the monop-
oly of violence traditionally wielded by states, challenges in the form of unsettling state
responses to non-state actors, and challenges to the Westphalian system itself in the form
of hybrid state/non-state forms of governance that may emerge. The volume overall
describes an emergent pattern of circulating power in which states are understood as
competing with non-state actors of various kinds, both within their traditional borders
and in transnational zones of collapsed governmentality, to project their influence and
prove their potency and legitimacy.
This is a complicated argument to present and certainly to defend, and is, as such,
accomplished fully by none of the contributions alone but quite admirably by the volume
as a whole, which incorporates a diverse range of cases from Eastern Europe to the
Democratic Republic of Congo and from Central America to the Horn of Africa. This is
achieved through four specific mechanisms. Firstly, the structure provided by the editors
allows for a clear narrative to develop between the chapters. The three substantive sec-
tions (each including three or four chapters) discuss the following: (a) the manner in
which non-armed groups challenge the state; (b) the defensive responses of the state to
these challenges; and (c) the ongoing alterations to the Westphalian system in response
to these dynamics. This structure provides a very linear narrative over the course of the
volume. Secondly, the diversity of chapters in each section, including both theory and
case studies, both keeps the reader engaged and develops the interaction between the
two. This does not always lead to clear support for one author’s theory from another
author’s case study, but it does contribute to a nuanced understanding of the complicated
state/non-state interactions being discussed.
Thirdly, while non-state actors are prominent in various sectors of our global society
(religion, finance, governance, law, etc.), the volume focuses on the use of violence by
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