Non-state Actors Research Articles

IndoGovBERT: A Domain-Specific Language Model for Processing Indonesian Government SDG Documents

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires collaboration among various stakeholders, particularly governments and non-state actors (NSAs). This collaboration results in but is also based on a continually growing volume of documents that needs to be analyzed and processed in a systematic way by government officials. Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (NLP) could, thus, offer valuable support for progressing towards SDG targets, including automating the government budget tagging and classifying NSA requests and initiatives, as well as helping uncover the possibilities for matching these two categories of activities. Many non-English speaking countries, including Indonesia, however, face limited NLP resources, such as, for instance, domain-specific pre-trained language models (PTLMs). This circumstance makes it difficult to automate document processing and improve the efficacy of SDG-related government efforts. The presented study introduces IndoGovBERT, a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT)-based PTLM built with domain-specific corpora, leveraging the Indonesian government’s public and internal documents. The model is intended to automate various laborious tasks of SDG document processing by the Indonesian government. Different approaches to PTLM development known from the literature are examined in the context of typical government settings. The most effective, in terms of the resultant model performance, but also most efficient, in terms of the computational resources required, methodology is determined and deployed for the development of the IndoGovBERT model. The developed model is then scrutinized in several text classification and similarity assessment experiments, where it is compared with four Indonesian general-purpose language models, a non-transformer approach of the Multilabel Topic Model (MLTM), as well as with a Multilingual BERT model. Results obtained in all experiments highlight the superior capability of the IndoGovBERT model for Indonesian government SDG document processing. The latter suggests that the proposed PTLM development methodology could be adopted to build high-performance specialized PTLMs for governments around the globe which face SDG document processing and other NLP challenges similar to the ones dealt with in the presented study.

Global Climate Governance: Evaluating Policy Responses in an Era of International Cooperation and Competition

This research paper provides an in-depth analysis of how the global community is working to address climate change through international cooperation and competition. It highlights dual forces that shape global climate governance, focusing on the Paris Agreement as a key framework. The article focuses on the fact that although international cooperation. Most countries fail to achieve the targets they set forth as part of their pledges; the gap between the pledging and the actual reduction of emissions is huge. International competition, especially in the area of renewable energy, would spur innovation and progress. China and the United States have invested heavily in green technologies; these investments have economically and strategically benefited those respective nations. This competition creates unequal disadvantages, especially for developing countries that cannot compete because they do not have sufficient resources. Non-state actors, including cities, corporations, civil society organizations, are also increasingly crucial to filling out national efforts.

Unpacking the Impact of External Support on Rebel Groups: Does it Fuel or Quell Violence Against Civilians?

ABSTRACT In civil conflicts, the relations of rebel groups with civilians are largely influenced by the rebels’ capabilities. Seeking external resources to enhance their military efforts and resilience, rebel groups’ access to those resources shapes their war strategies, including violence against civilians. Unlike the extant research drawing on highly aggregated designs, we argue that not every form of support affects rebels’ violent behaviour in the same direction. In this study, we test whether different forms of external support are associated with the level of rebel violence against civilians by using comprehensive data on foreign support to rebel groups in intrastate conflicts between 1989 and 2017. The findings support the need for disaggregation of foreign support to understand better the dynamics in this relationship. The results show that external support in the forms of access to infrastructure, from both state and non-state actors, and troops from non-state actors are associated with a decrease in civilian victimisation.

Quandaries of Trying to Do Good-The Adequacy of the WHO FENSA Regulations.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors (FENSA), established in 2016, is designed to enhance transparency, impartiality, and conflict-of-interest safeguards by setting rigorous guidelines for WHO's interactions with private entities, particularly those in high-risk industries such as tobacco, alcohol, and arms. This paper briefly reviews the implementation and impact of FENSA, observing that, despite these safeguards, its application in academic contexts poses specific challenges. Universities, often reliant on diverse funding sources, may find the rules restrictive and misaligned with independent funding needs. The creation of the WHO Foundation in 2020 further complicates this landscape by enabling engagements with previously restricted private sector entities through an "arm's length" model. The authors advocate for a reassessment of FENSA to resolve inconsistencies and support essential academic collaborations, while upholding WHO's commitment to ethical standards.

Unraveling proxy wars: A comparison of state sponsorship decisions in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen

This study aims to explain the pattern of state sponsorship of civil wars in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Recent studies have improved our scholarly understanding of decisions regarding intervention and sponsorship. Yet, our understanding of state sponsorship decision in conflict that precedes an escalation remains limited. Herein, I develop a multicausal framework to analyze state sponsorship decisions, employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to account for state support. The results suggest novel insights into how strategic interests drive states to influence civil war dynamics for desired benefits. Contrary to conventional wisdom, bilateral rivalry alone does not guarantee a sponsorship decision. States tend to support when they perceive opportunities that are aligned with their economic interests or when countering transnational threats from violent non-state actors who are backed by another state. These findings elucidate how initial state sponsorship decisions might relate to conflict escalation over time.

Power Dynamics of Cross-Border Conflict in Lebanon and Syria

This paper identifies the main conflict actors in cross-border conflict across Lebanon and Syria as being Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Armed Forces, and highlights the power hierarchies between those actors as well as between them and ordinary people in those border regions. The paper shows that in those two countries, both state and non-state actors (de factor authorities) are the main conflict actors who are invested in the conflict status quo that they profiteer from—the state is therefore also part of the problem. The paper additionally argues that there is a need to understand hierarchies of power among conflict actors and how they position local communities at the bottom of the conflict economy pyramid. The paper shows that local communities end up entangled in the conflict economy for the sake of economic coping and survival. Often, both conflict actors and local communities act pragmatically rather than ideologically for the sake of economic survival or gain, but conflict actors trap local communities in the coping economy by removing alternatives, cultivating relationships of dependency by coping communities on major conflict actors. The paper uses these conclusions to present recommendations for conflict response policies. The paper is published as part of the Cross-Border Conflict, Policy and Trends (XCEPT) research programme funded by UK International Development.

Identifying and developing the roles of private business actors in international regime complexes

Abstract Business actors play increasingly important roles in global governance and international regulation. This paper considers how regime complexity influences the roles of businesses and impacts opportunities for business influence on international regulatory regimes. We conducted a scoping literature review of 243 articles from the International Regime Complexity (IRC) theory literature to explore if and how complexity affects the roles of businesses and their influence on international regulation. We found that complexity presents opportunities for businesses to regime shift and exploit knowledge asymmetry in order to influence international regulation. Further, IRC theory illustrates how the roles of businesses interact and leverage one another in order to create better opportunities for influence in specific international regulatory regimes. This paper contributes to IRC theory by building on the existing non-state actor discussions and offering specific theorization of business behavior, thus starting to bridge the gap between the empirical and theoretical understanding. Second, it contributes to existing discussions in business and politics literature by developing existing knowledge on the roles of businesses in global governance to better reflect the added dimension of complexity.

Value-driven Contention in China: Forms, Tactics and State Responses

Abstract This research challenges the conventional wisdom that value-driven protests in China are exceedingly rare and face harsh state repression. Drawing on a hand-coded, multi-source dataset of over 3,100 protests in three Chinese megacities from 2014 to 2016, we identify 67 protests that reveal a hitherto unknown underbelly of everyday, value-driven contention. Qualitatively, we identify three main forms of contentious performances. Quantitatively, we show how value-driven protesters combine non-disruptive tactics with ambitious targets and virtually never extract concessions. Surprisingly, we find that such protests are less often policed and repressed than other protests. They are also never met with violence from non-state actors. We provide three interpretations for the counter-intuitive finding on repression. This study shows that the Chinese state coexists with a non-negligible amount of explicitly regime-critical contention. It adopts a containment strategy, tolerating a certain extent of value-driven performances when the risk of spill-over into wider society is limited.

The Pacific Islands and Chinese power as presence, influence, and interference

Abstract Dominant debates about China’s growing presence in the Pacific Islands – through infrastructure, aid, trade, and investment – suggest that Chinese material power directly translates to influence and effective interference in Pacific states’ domestic and foreign affairs. These perspectives fail to clarify the causal link between Chinese economic statecraft and Pacific governments’ alignment with Beijing’s interests. They also deny Pacific people agency, overlooking how power relations are mediated by Pacific state and non-state actors operating across complex political and socio-economic structures. We challenge such rationalist conceptualisations of Chinese power by developing a constructivist taxonomy of power as presence (dormant capability), influence (socialisation), and interference (incentives), and applying it to the Melanesian subregion. We argue that Chinese power is not merely material, causal, and unidirectional. Chinese power can also (re)shape the identities and interests of Pacific elites and publics in a constitutive manner, potentially aligning their ideas about substantive norms, rules, and practices guiding their foreign relations with Chinese ‘core interests’ and perspectives on regional and global politics.

Electoral Incentives and Negotiated Settlements: Legislative Deliberation on the Mindanao Conflict in the Philippines

Some conflict‐experiencing countries undergo both violent and electoral competitions. In other words, electoral competition evolves while nonstate actors struggle to realize their political and cultural demands by arms. Although increasing attention has been paid to the interplay between domestic political dynamics and violent conflict, we still know little about how the electoral calculations of legislators shape their response to negotiated settlement, possibly influencing conflict processes. By examining the congressional records of the House of Representatives in the Philippines, this study conducts quantitative text analyses to assess the impacts of electoral incentives—shaped by executive popularity, district ethnic composition, and the occurrence of conflict‐related violence—on legislators' response to negotiated settlement. The results demonstrate that legislators are sensitive to constituents' views on conflict settlement by showing support or opposition to negotiated settlement, anticipating their electoral fortunes in the next election.

Protection of Human Rights in the Global Garment Industry

Considerable expansion of the global garment industry, which in recent decades has become one of the largest employment sectors worldwide, has intensified scrutiny of states’ and businesses’ responsibilities, especially as production increasingly shifts to countries with less strict labour regulations. Analysis of the landscape reveals that, significant progress notwithstanding, world dialogue on business responsibilities has still not arrived at a solution. The complex network of stakeholders in the garment industry brings particular challenges to enforcing human-rights protection in this domain. The article explores the intersection of business practices and human rights within the garment sector, focusing on Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan, three countries which play a pivotal role in global fashion exports. Examining the legal obligations of state and non-state actors under various UN instruments by analysing the Universal Periodic Review mechanism and the concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, it identifies critical issues in protecting human rights in these countries and briefly also reviews recent advances in the EU in the realm of business and human rights. The paper presents evidence that the growing influence of non-state actors calls for extending the obligations from traditional approaches’, which have focused on state responsibilities. Among the solutions proposed are reforming wage systems and imposing direct human-rights requirements on corporations, supported by more vigorous enforcement.

A scoping review of street homelessness: What can Papua New Guinea learn from South Africa?

Homelessness is a global social issue that has affected various nations around the world, including South Africa. The instances of homelessness began during the apartheid era in South Africa and have since risen to alarming levels in provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, as reported in the 2022 census. Despite the lack of comprehensive research on homelessness in South Africa, this study conducted a scoping review to evaluate research completed on homelessness from independence to 2020 in the country. The scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Item for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and involved a systematic search of the Development Southern Africa and Urban Forum databases. A total of 72 research articles were identified, with 10 meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the review, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis. The study identified several key themes, including homelessness as a reflection of patriarchal systems, gender-based conflicts leading to homelessness, proactive and reactive interventions by non-state actors for homeless individuals, and the quantitative focus of research on homelessness in South Africa from independence to the present day. The study presents the applicability of these findings to tackle homelessness in Papua New Guinea and recommends the use of mixed methods approaches to research homelessness in South Africa to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the various dimensions of homelessness in the country.

Liberal Democracy Promotion and the Observation of Democracy

ABSTRACT This article suggests that the observation of democracy is at the core of liberal democracy promotion. Broadly conceived, the observation of democracy is evident in the democracy reports published by international organisations and non-state actors and common meaning making about “target” states in democracy promotion. Based on an historical inquiry focused on developments in the Permanent Mandates Commission, Trusteeship Council and, to lesser degree, Freedom House, I argue that the observation of democracy stems from practices invented in colonial contexts and includes long-lasting epistemic and political hierarchies. Though organisations develop varying styles, observations of democracy show similar components and a common orientation towards Western understandings of representative democracy. My argument contributes to research on how contemporary practices are enabled by and reproduce (post-) colonial patterns and historical reflection on epistemic and political hierarchies in democracy promotion.

Actor-specific adaptation objectives shape perceived roles and responsibilities: lessons from Mumbai’s flood risk reduction and general considerations

Adaptation efforts need to be advanced significantly, involving multiple actors and a diverse portfolio of options. Despite this being well established, there is little understanding of different actors’ perceptions of adaptation goals and their associated expectations regarding roles and responsibilities to achieve them. In this analysis, we seek to address this gap by elucidating the diverging viewpoints held by various actor groups concerning adaptation objectives, target beneficiaries, and the distribution of roles and responsibilities for adaptation. Here, we use the case study of flood risk in Mumbai, drawing upon qualitative interview data collected through key informant interviews with diverse stakeholders including state, civil society, and academic actors. Interviews revealed stark disparities between state and non-state actors, in particular on the objective of efficiency, largely emphasized by state actors for physical infrastructure measures. Other contested objectives included ecosystem protection and fairness for vulnerable populations. The findings showed consensus on the importance of planning. Non-state actors heavily debated the lack of planning and implementation of institutional changes and ecosystem-based measures. They called for a stronger role of the state in caretaking and fairness for vulnerable populations, mainly through deeper institutional changes. Overall, the findings point to the urgent need for understanding how actors navigate competing priorities, make trade-offs, and negotiate conflicting viewpoints on the distribution of roles and responsibilities. This paper makes an empirical and conceptual contribution to the debates on “social contracts” for adaptation, offering an operationalization of the concept and application to a real-world example through an actor lens.

Jus ad bellum series: self-defence against armed non-state actors in the MENA region

ABSTRACT This article marks the launch of the new ‘Jus ad bellum Series’ in the Journal on the Use of Force and International Law, designed to explore the evolving state practice in the jus ad bellum regime. This inaugural piece explores the evolving state practice in relation to self-defence against armed non-state actors (ANSAs), focusing specifically on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The article is structured into four key sections: first, the interpretation of Article 51 of the UN Charter; second, the contentious issue of anticipatory self-defence, focusing on how recent state practice has reshaped the concept of imminence in response to modern security threats; third, the criteria of necessity and proportionality; finally, the ‘unwilling or unable’ doctrine. The analysis of Article 51’s interpretation reveals significant variation in how states frame their self-defence claims, reflecting the complexity of applying traditional jus ad bellum rules to contemporary security threats.

“Purely cultural and economic in nature...”: Russian agricultural colonisation and land ownership of the Caspian provinces of Iran and the category of “cultural conquest”

In this article, the author examines the concept of “cultural conquest” in the context of the Russian Empire’s policy towards the Caspian provinces of Iran, both prior to and during the Great War. In the period preceding the outbreak of hostilities, Russian peasant colonists began to settle in the Astarabad province, while concurrently, significant Russian land ownership emerged in the southern Caspian region. These developments were subjected to rigorous scrutiny by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Resettlement Department, and other pertinent authorities. The phenomenon is not adequately represented in historiography, despite its significance in the context of New Imperial History. One of the pivotal concepts employed in analysing and comprehending the processes of Russian expansion into the region was the notion of “cultural conquest”. This category was actively employed by both state and non-state actors to conceptualise the ongoing economic, political, and cultural interactions in a crucial frontier region. The analysis of a wide range of materials, including archival and published sources such as diplomatic correspondence, concession projects, and publications by officials from the Resettlement Department, has been conducted with the aim of investigating the contexts of the use of the category “cultural conquest” (and related terms) as well as proposed options for optimal policy in the region. The author indicates that this concept was of a framework nature and comprised three principal components: political, economic, and civilisational. He demonstrates that despite significant similarities in the interpretations of the concept by different actors, there were differences in understanding the methods and optimal ways of “cultural conquest” of the Caspian provinces.

Implementation of the international health regulations – global challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract The International Health Regulations (IHR) govern how 196 countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) collectively manage global disease spread while preserving international travel and commercial trade. The COVID-19 pandemic set an unprecedented challenge to the IHR commitments. To address this gap, two scoping reviews were conducted: one identifying global challenges in IHR implementation and the other analyzing challenges, successes and limitations of the IHR during the COVID-19 pandemic. The scoping reviews followed Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and PRISMA methodology, utilizing the PubMed, Medline, World of Science, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar databases, plus backwards citation chaining. Data selection and analysis were guided by pretest forms. From 128 articles screened, 52 met inclusion criteria for the IHR implementation review. 135 challenges were identified, in these categories: (1) requirement of financial and technical resources, (2) lack of enforcement and accountability mechanisms, (3) need for rules clarification, (4) deterrents to reporting, (5) inadequate governance, (6) insufficient cooperation between countries, (7) sovereignty issues, (8) scarcity of guidance and technical support from WHO, (9) lack of inclusion of roles for relevant non-state actors, (10) conflicts and emergencies. In the COVID-19 review, 15 articles were included. Although the role of the IHR during Health Emergencies was acknowledged, most countries faced limitations in its implementation during the pandemic. Key lessons included reinforcing the global health security strategy, reviewing the IHR to address current challenges and strengthening countries and states’ commitment to resolutions compliance. The ongoing debate over IHR updates confirms the need for its revision to safeguard global health. A more effective response grounded on the IHR is needed to face upcoming and expected events of COVID-19’s magnitude and severity.

Diplomasi Publik Cina terhadap Indonesia dalam Festival Kue Bulan Tahun 2023

The Mooncake Festival is one of China's public diplomacies through cultural activities towards Indonesia. On September 27, 2023, the Chinese Government, through its Ambassador in Indonesia, held a Mooncake Festival with the theme "Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with Full Flower and Full Moon". This festival is momentum for the Chinese Government to introduce the Mooncake Festival as one of the biggest celebrations in Chinese culture to the Indonesian people. This study aims to examine China's public diplomacy efforts towards Indonesia through the 2023 Mooncake Festival. This study uses a qualitative method, with primary and secondary data sources and qualitative descriptive analysis techniques. By utilizing the concept of public diplomacy from Ingrid D'Hooge, the conclusion of this study is the implementation of China's public diplomacy towards Indonesia through the 2023 Mooncake Festival involves many non-state actors and developing and launching strategies that focus on its culture by introducing Chinese culture to Indonesia. Not only that, China also uses publication media to implement China's public diplomacy toward Indonesia's success through the 2023 Mooncake Festival.

Mitigating flood risk at Shah Alam, Malaysia for sustainable development

The natural environment and infrastructure are severely damaged by floods, which are becoming frequent occurrences. It may not be able to stop floods given the impending climate change and variability of the weather. Yet mapping flood risk can help with both mitigation and prevention of flooding. The Shah Alam experiences flash floods yearly, which is why it was chosen. An interactive approach to decision-making under multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), is used. The flood risk zone is divided into five categories very low-risk (32.38%), low-risk (22.25%), moderate-risk (23.17%), high-risk (18.87%), and very high-risk (3.33%) respectively. Based on the data gathered for this study, the economic losses are identified, low-risk areas (RM 2091), moderate-risk areas (RM 2343), and high-risk areas (RM 2728). The historical flood events occur in the Seksyen 36, 18, 17, and most of the southern part of Shah Alam, Malaysia. Rainfall and the Klang River have the biggest effects on these regions, with water drainage systems being critical in the Shah Alam area to reduce the risk of floods. When analysing flood risks in the Shah Alam region and throughout the nation, important stakeholders both state and non-state actors can benefit greatly from the flood susceptibility map provided by this study.

Comparative Educational Pluralism: A Framework for Comparative Policy Analysis

ABSTRACT In the face of ideologically driven inquiry and advocacy, debates about school choice and public-private-partnerships in education have produced more “light than heat.” Although scholars have recently emphasized the need for a greater focus on the particulars of policy design, limitations of existing frameworks have inhibited rigorous policy research capable of enhancing understanding of the effects of different policy designs, particularly when considering cross-national and comparative experiences. This article critically analyzes a set of prominent frameworks from the field before proposing a new Framework for Comparative Educational Pluralism that could inform a more design-sensitive and evidence-rooted approach to policy analysis and design pertaining to the role of non-state actors in education systems.