In the 21st Century, violent non-state actors continue to pose an asymmetric threat to state actors. Given the increasing proliferation of lethal technologies, growing global social connectivity, and continued occurrences of failed or failing states, the quantity of violent non-state actors posing threats in global hotspots is likely to increase. The United States, already facing strategic overreach due to conflicts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, will face enormous difficulties in engaging militarily against a multitude of violent non-state actors. Smart power, a selective employment of hard and soft power applications, presents an opportunity to limit and deter violent non-state actors in a resource-constrained environment. Smart power, previously viewed through a largely state-on-state lens must be looked at through the paradigm of containing and engaging violent non-state actors. / Master of Arts / Modern nation-states must contend with an asymmetric threat from violent nonstate actors. In this thesis, an asymmetric threat is viewed as a threat in which the conventionally weaker opponent gains an undue advantage given their commensurate strength. Violent non-state actors are defined in this thesis as non-state armed groups that resort to organized violence as a tool to achieve their goals. Given the increasing proliferation of lethal technologies, growing global social connectivity, and continued occurrences of failed or failing states, the quantity of violent non-state actors posing threats in global hotspots is likely to increase. The United States, already facing strategic overreach due to conflicts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, will face enormous difficulties in engaging militarily against a multitude of violent non-state actors. Smart power, the employment of a variety of power applications [i.e. air strikes, coalition building, diplomacy, foreign aid, etc.], presents an opportunity to limit and deter violent non-state actors in a resource-constrained environment. Smart power, previously viewed through a largely state-on-state lens must be looked at through the paradigm of containing and engaging violent non-state actors.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/74395 |
| Date | 18 January 2017 |
| Creators | Shabro, Luke Sweeden |
| Contributors | Political Science, Nelson, Scott G., Stivachtis, Yannis A., Zanotti, Laura |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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