{"product_id":"new-dogs-of-war-nonstate-actor-violence-in-international-politics-9781501758898","title":"New Dogs of War: Nonstate Actor Violence in International Politics","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAs Ward Thomas details in \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New Dogs of War\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, militias and paramilitary groups wield greater power than national governments in many countries, while in some war zones private contractors perform missions previously reserved for uniformed troops.\u003c\/b\u003e Most ominously, terrorist organizations with global reach have come to define the security landscape for even the most powerful nations. Across the first decades of the twenty-first century we have witnessed a dramatic rise in the use of military force by these nonstate actors in ways that have impacted the international system, leading Thomas to undertake this valuable assessment of the state of play at this critical moment. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eTo understand the spread of nonstate violence, Thomas focuses on the crucial role played by an epochal transformation in international norms. Since the eighteenth century, the Westphalian model of sovereignty has reserved the legitimate use of force to states. Thomas argues that normative changes in the decades after World War II produced a \"crisis of coherence\" for formal and informal rules against nonstate violence. In detailed case studies of nonstate militias, transnational terrorist networks, and private military contractors, Thomas explains how forces contesting state prerogatives exploited this crisis, which in turn reshaped international understandings of who could legitimately use force. By considering for the first time all three purveyors of nonstate violence as aspects of the same phenomenon, \u003ci\u003eThe New Dogs of War\u003c\/i\u003e explains this fundamental shift in the norm that for centuries gave states the monopoly on military force.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eWard Thomas is Professor of Political Science at the College of the Holy Cross and the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Ethics of Destruction\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50445080690962,"sku":"9781501758898","price":53.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9d41648c-e4d0-4f1b-bb55-26f38a7cdb5a.jpg?v=1729695252","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/new-dogs-of-war-nonstate-actor-violence-in-international-politics-9781501758898","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}