Coping with Complexity: Dealing with Non-State Armed Actors

Dealing with NSAAs is complicated and complex shifting between repression and dialogue. NSAAs are highly flexibkle and able to adapt to changing local and global contexts. Policies must be comprehensive and include local communities as well as structural drivers of violence.

In Latin America, most violence is considered “criminal.” But a clear-cut distinction between political and criminal violence does not exist. Policies to reduce violence meander between repression and dialogue but lack comprehensiveness, and a focus on prevention, the rule of law, and human rights.

Applying a Historical Institutionalist framework, the authors of this article assess the impact of the adoption of amnesty laws on societal impunity, defined as any person or group being exempt from punishment or free from the injurious consequences of an action.

What effect has the COVID-19 pandemic had on different armed actors across the Global South? This comparative analysis of regional trends and different armed actors provides evidence for regional specificities and an overall brief decline in violence before a return to pre-pandemic levels.

Dealing with NSAAs is complicated and complex shifting between repression and dialogue. NSAAs are highly flexibkle and able to adapt to changing local and global contexts. Policies must be comprehensive and include local communities as well as structural drivers of violence.

In Latin America, most violence is considered “criminal.” But a clear-cut distinction between political and criminal violence does not exist. Policies to reduce violence meander between repression and dialogue but lack comprehensiveness, and a focus on prevention, the rule of law, and human rights.