State Sponsorship Research Articles

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.

Rural transformation and sustainable livelihood approaches under regional environmental policies: Evidence from two villages in the Yangtze River Delta metropolitan region, China

AbstractHasty and often uncontrolled urbanization and industrialization in metropolitan regions have pressured fragile rural ecosystems and large‐scale rural livelihoods in China. Through in‐depth observation and face‐to‐face interviews with key insiders in the villages of China's largest metropolitan region, the Yangtze River Delta, findings show that environmental policies in this region have profoundly influenced the local institutional processes and rural transformation. Through the lens of a modified sustainable livelihoods approach (MSLA), two institutional processes in formulating livelihoods strategies have stood out from case villages—state sponsorship exemplified by Yu village and grassroots entrepreneurship exemplified by Daxi village—and achieved sustainable livelihood outcomes in both collective level and household level. In particular, state‐sponsored development in Yu village was strongly supported by local leadership and trust between local cadres and villagers. In contrast, grassroots entrepreneurial development in Daxi village emphasized rural entrepreneurs' self‐learning and self‐governance capacities. As such, we argue that making sustainable livelihood strategies is not a unidirectional process like top‐down or bottom‐up, albeit multifaceted alternatives intertwined with dynamic institutional processes for collectives and households in rural areas. Ultimately, we call for more vivid and in‐depth case studies to nuance regional geography and its contextual attributes in further sustainable livelihood research in rural areas.

Symphonic music and cultural statecraft: the rise of symphonic statecraft in the post-Mao China

ABSTRACT Despite extensive studies on China’s soft power assets and strategies, the role of symphonic music within its cultural statecraft remains underexplored. This paper introduces the notion of ‘symphonic statecraft’ to examine the targeted and context-specific nature of China’s cultural efforts, focusing on how China adapts this globally recognized art form for its nation-building project. Using mixed methods, the study analyses awards from national composition contests between 1978 and 2012 and the programming choices of the China National Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2023 to reveal an environment shaped by selective state sponsorship that allows for artistic autonomy. The findings demonstrate a nuanced interplay between global influences and local interpretations, illustrating how China crafts narratives that interweave its enduring civilizational essence with contemporary aspirations. This evolving strategy absorbs increasingly diverse themes and moves beyond surface-level propaganda while maintaining strategic boundaries, reflecting the process of selective openness in China’s symphonic identity formation.

Cultural attachés: African literature, the CIA, and the hermeneutics of suspicion

Recent attempts to outline post-critical models of interpretation in literary studies have often fixated on suspicion, paranoia, or unmasking as their foils. But in the early decades of decolonization, it made sense to be paranoid: writers and artists were justified in suspecting that they were being covertly observed, funded, or promoted by para-state actors knee-deep in the Cold War battlefield of culture. Scholars have long debated whether and how covert state sponsorship for the arts matters. In postcolonial studies especially there has been a revival of interest in the CIA’s activities as a cultural patron through its proxy foundation, the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF). Recent research on the CCF has tended to concentrate on what its clandestine sponsorship means for aesthetic autonomy – the notion that the artist has or ought to have some relative autonomy from meddling outside forces, a cherished value of both modernism and mid-century humanism. Focusing on the CCF’s support for African modernism, this essay suggests that we need to look beyond autonomy as our default paradigm for assessing Cold War cultural patronage. Instead of joining the debate over what the CCF did or did not do to African literature, this essay asks: what did they even think they were doing? Drawing on research in the CCF archives, this essay argues that a better way to understand the CCF’s approach is as a practice of attachment. The aim here is to re-describe Cold War cultural patronage – and, along the way, to ask what scholars of decolonization and the Cold War might stand to learn by engaging with ongoing debates about methodology in the broader field of literary studies.

Teacher professional development (TPD) in Ghana: constraints and solutions

ABSTRACT This study examined constraints facing teacher professional development (TPD) at the pre-tertiary level of education in Ghana and the measures that could address them. Based on an embedded mixed method design, we sampled 150 pre-tertiary school teachers from a purposively selected district in eastern Ghana. We used questionnaires for data collection and analysed the data using descriptive, factor, and regression analyses. The study revealed multitudes of systemic challenges, such as the failure of TPD organisers to follow up on in-service training programmes, infrequent state sponsorship of TPD activities, and the lack of transparency in awarding study leave for professional development. In resolving the challenges, the research found, among other things, the need to make follow-ups to address skill gaps after training programmes, increase budget spending on TPD activities, and decentralise the organisation of TPD activities to make them transparent. Locally, the findings highlight TPD as a crucial challenge in Ghana’s education system and underscore the importance of addressing skill gaps through follow-up initiatives after training programmes. Internationally, the study adds to the burgeoning literature on TPD by providing a more nuanced understanding of the nature of TPD challenges in an African context through the lens of the Theory of Constraints.

Terrorism Financing Typologies: Comparison of PKK and ISIL in Turkey

This comparative case study investigated the financing typologies of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Turkey. PKK is a Marxist- Leninist organization that pursues ethnic separationist policies in Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. ISIL is a radical Wahhabi network that aspires to re-establish the Caliphate and restore the “glory” of Sharia by defeating the “near” and “far” enemies. These networks are chosen for this case study as they operate in close proximity along Turkish, Iraqi and Syrian borders. In addition to primary and secondary interviews, the research has been based on content analysis of unclassified documents and media coverage on counter PKK/ISIL investigations. This study indicated that both organizations have been highly skillful in exploiting the regional licit and illicit enterprises. Financing methods of PKK and ISIL were similar in complex regional underground economic infrastructure. However, PKK has been able to develop much more sophisticated financial infrastructure than ISIL due to a longer life span and existence of specialized cadres in the Middle East and Europe. Ideology had a significant impact on differences in state sponsorship and exploitation of non-profit organizations. Both the Marxists and radical İslamists encouraged illicit trade schemes not only to generate funds but also to avoid taxation by the “hostile” regimes. ISIL has failed to develop advanced financing infrastructure mainly due to a shorter life span, loss of territorial control and the UN-US sponsored international sanctions.

Pathways to Cooperation: A Relational Theory of Rebel Alliance Formation

Why do some rebel organizations form a united front when others confine themselves to a loose partnership? Existing research on rebel movements reveals that insurgents should quickly leave cooperative agreements if doing so will provide particular advantages in a post-conflict setting. Still, rebel groups may build diverse alliances, from joint attacks to shared command structures. If rebels are indeed purely pragmatic, why would they tie themselves to partnerships that hinder their ability to defect easily? In this article, I argue that three relational factors shape how armed groups cooperate: rebel-civilian relations (civilian support), inter-rebel relations (partners), and rebel-sponsor relations (external patrons). Groups connected through these social networks will be more likely to join a united opposition with their shared channels of trust. Developing a new dyadic dataset, I find that sharing allies or civilian support is positively associated with forming united fronts. Yet, state sponsorship does not produce similar results.

Location, Location, Location: Disentangling Drivers of Terrorist Credit-Taking

ABSTRACT Most academic definitions of terrorism emphasize the communicative function of terrorism. The aim of terrorist violence is widely held to be to gain publication for a political or religious cause. Despite this emphasis on communication, terrorists rarely seek attention by claiming responsibility for attacks. According to the Global Terrorism Database, claims of responsibility are only issued for approximately every sixth attack. This raises the question: Why do terrorists abstain from the easy “win” of claiming their attacks? Previous research has theorized that factors like state sponsorship, principal-agent problems, casualty levels, and inter-group competition are important factors in explaining variation in terrorist credit-taking propensities. In this paper, we diverge from the tried and trusted deductive approach and instead utilize an inductive approach. We apply machine learning techniques using Random Forests to predict claims of responsibility. Our initial results indicate that geographical factors, like country of attack, are the strongest predictors of claims—something largely overlooked by existing research. In our analysis, the predictive power of geographical factors thus exceeds that of explanations from the literature based on characteristics of the target of the attack, e.g. number of fatalities and wounded.

Securitization and State Sponsorship of Non-State Actors: Analyzing the Saudi-Iranian Rivalry

Securitization and State Sponsorship of Non-State Actors: Analyzing the Saudi-Iranian Rivalry

How to Think About State Sponsorship of Terrorism

States usually support terrorist groups to weaken their rivals, silence their opponents and give themselves options they otherwise lack. By providing weapons, training, a sanctuary and other support, states can make terrorist groups more deadly, increasing their skill and survivability. At the same time, states often impose constraints on their proxies, creating many difficulties for the terrorists. Iran and other enemies of the United States and its allies have long supported terrorists, and state sponsorship is likely to play a role in any continued confrontation with Russia, which may double down on existing ties to extremists given its humiliation in Ukraine and desire for revenge on its enemies. Confronting state sponsors of terrorism is difficult, however. For democracies, applying a ‘state sponsor’ label can be a powerful rhetorical, legal and policy tool. At the same time, it can often be misused, become an empty political gesture or even backfire. The ‘state sponsor’ label is highly politicised, and long-standing sponsors like Pakistan have avoided it. Clarifying what state sponsorship is, increasing the flexibility of the designation, giving policymakers more leeway on when to impose sanctions, and otherwise knowing how to better combat a state sponsor is vital.

See You at the Pole: Evangelicals, Public Schools, and “Student-Initiated” School Prayer in 1990s America

Histories of school prayer have typically concluded in the late 1980s, when court rulings and stalled legislation conclusively barred the door on the return of state-sponsored prayer to public schools. Through an analysis of See You at the Pole, a nationwide initiative formed in 1990 that mobilized millions of American students to gather annually to pray at their school flagpoles, this article argues that the 1990s witnessed not the waning of religion in public schools, but rather its revival in “student-initiated” forms. By tracing the pivot from debates over state sponsorship of religion to debates over students’ rights of free expression, this article establishes the 1990s as a major turning point in legal, political, and religious histories of school prayer. Further, this study of See You at the Pole illuminates how bipartisan, pluralist legitimating logics that crystallized in the 1990s underlie the phenomenon that scholars have recently termed “Christian nationalism.”

Does Sudan’s Removal from State Sponsors of Terrorism Designation Affect Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)? “A Multivariate Analysis Combining VECM and ARDL Analysis” (1974–2019)

Thanks to the great political and economic global openness that Sudan witnessed in late 2020, the USA decided to remove Sudan from the terrorism sponsors designation. The paper seeks to investigate whether Sudan’s removal from the state sponsors of terrorism designation affects foreign direct investment (FDI). Data covered the 1974–2019 period, using a multivariate analysis combining VECM and ARDL models. Evidence reveals that the political and economic global openness headed by the removal of Sudan from state sponsors of terrorism designation, agricultural and oil investment as well as minerals investment opportunities are key variables that attract foreign direct investment in Sudan and affect FDI inflows positively and significantly in the long run. Policymakers should benefit from the global openness opportunities that offer a respectable environment for FDI inflows. Meanwhile, lifting the political and economic restrictions that were imposed, such as the state of a sponsor of terrorism and further economic restrictions, can boost investment in the agriculture, oil, and mineral sectors in the long run by creating some effective policies that are likely to lure foreign direct investment inflows and enhance sustainable economic development. Policymakers should emphasize implementing agriculture, oil, and mineral investment policies that must be accompanied with fundamental infrastructure restructuring policies by reforming the government system through the adoption of effective financial policies to combat corruption. Also, policymakers should develop towards geographic diversification of foreign investment flows to Sudan by focusing on European countries as essential partners given their crucial role in supporting Sudan and the strength of efficient companies in all areas that Sudan needs.

The Monumental Crowd: Collective Attention in Symbolic and Material Spaces

Abstract: Although often ignored in one's daily routine, monuments can serve as potent magnets for crowd gatherings in unveilings, preservation, and protest. The materiality of the monument provides a point of collective attention that binds participants in common cause within a civic space. When successful, these gatherings depend on enacting a set of processes: planning, organizing, gathering, performing, and dispersing. Each occurs within the context of state sponsorship or opposition. As is evident from cases in colonial New York and contemporary Virginia, monuments, no longer mute, can speak to crowds with shared images of morality and justice in their metal and marble materiality.

Terrorism in the literature of the 1970s.Has the old axis of the dispute remained valid?

The 1970s are referred to as the “golden age” of terrorism. In this decade, it tookon an international character and links between terrorist groups from different countriesbegan to form. In the literature of that period, as well as now, the difficultiesassociated with building a uniform definition of the phenomenon of terrorism wereemphasized, as well as the practice of supporting it by the countries of the communist bloc. At the same time, the first classifications of sources of financing terrorism weremade, including mainly state sponsorship, donations and criminal activity. The axisof the dispute in the literature of the discussed decade was the attitude of individualauthors to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and all assessments of the phenomenonof terrorism were a derivative of views on this issue. However, this state of affairs wasnot specific only to the 1970s. This dispute has survived to this day, taking the formof a debate on the phenomenon of the so-called “Islamophobia.” In the course of thisdebate, some authors question not only Israel’s policy towards the Palestinians, butalso the legitimacy of the “global war on terrorism” conducted after 2001 by Westerncountries. This article is an expression of unequivocal condemnation of the views presentin some of the literature that actually justify terrorism, and especially those views thatfalsely equate the phenomenon of the so-called “Islamophobia” with anti-Semitism.The discrepancy of opinion on terrorism, revealed already in the 1970s, is a permanentelement of the discourse on this matter to this day.

Dogs and Cats Living Together? Explaining the Crime-Terror Nexus

ABSTRACT Why do some terrorist groups cooperate with criminal organizations? This behavior is puzzling because there are reputational reasons for each of these kinds of groups to avoid the other, yet such cooperation seems to be increasingly common. The growing literature on the “crime-terror-nexus” examines terrorist-criminal cooperation, but questions remain. We discuss relevant research, and present hypotheses. Analysis of nearly 400 terrorist organizations using a newly-coded measure of inter-organizational cooperation suggests that certain types of terrorist groups are more likely to work with organized crime: those that are involved in the drug trade, cooperate with other terrorist groups, are older, or are more lethal. These relationships are robust. We also find some evidence that the crime-terror nexus is more likely for groups that have state sponsors, have larger memberships, operate in more capable countries, or operate in less-democratic countries. There is also some evidence that ethnically-motivated terrorist groups are less likely to cooperate with organized crime. Interestingly, there is little or no support for the idea that the nexus is related to territorial control or religious ideology. These findings go against some previous research and suggest steps for future analysis.

Nigerian National Question and State Sponsorship of Terrorism in Igbo

The Igbos in eastern Nigeria are stigmatised and marginalised. Since the last war, every effort has been made to shortchange them. Their desire to be welcomed back into the mainstream of the federal state system has always been rebuffed. The return to civil rule in 1999 even accentuated the marginalisation than bringing it to bail. They then took back to separatist agitation which is familiar terrain for the Igbo. But the Igbo still have found no respite. The Federal government of Buhari which the Igbo had never supported or voted for in the previous elections of 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 schemed to infiltrate the Igbo with the virus of herdsmen and terrorist incursions. The resistance of the Igbo still rattles and aggravated the Buhari state characterizing the Igbo as ‘a dot on a circle’. This Study which employs the doctrinal method looks critically into the motive behind insurgency and terrorism in the Igbo of the southeast. It finds that genuine security structures which Igbo have put in place to secure the southeast heartland are being undermined by both the Federal and the State governments. They are viewed within the suspicious spectrum of separatist agitation while those instituted and used by the State are destabilising Ndigbo, prevaricating and inducing more bloodshed in Igbo. It concludes that genuine efforts should be made by the Federal government to reconcile with the Igbo and come away from the pre-war disposition of the Nigerian state against the Igbo.

If Books Could Kill: Leo Tolstoy and the Cultural Cold War

Drawing on declassified Central Intelligence Agency files and the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) archives held at the University of Chicago, this essay investigates how the CIA and its cover organizations sought to manipulate the legacy of Leo Tolstoy as part of the larger Cultural Cold War. In 1960, the CCF marked the fiftieth anniversary of Tolstoy's death by organizing a conference that attracted a wide range of writers and academics from around the world. Secretly sponsored by the CIA, the Tolstoy gathering, which took place in Venice in the summer of 1960, was intended to counter similar events planned by the Soviets, which the CIA feared would portray the Russian novelist as a prophet of Bolshevism. In response, the West hoped to claim Tolstoy as a thinker whose individualist philosophy was unassimilable to either Marxism or capitalism. Essentially, they sought to secularize his Christian anarchism as a form of radical liberty. However, this essay argues, the intelligence community's appropriation of the humanities ultimately conflicts with the pacifist writer's antipathy toward state sponsorship of the arts and the weaponization of culture in the service of nationalistic agendas.

The Flowing of the Sacred Space: How Reciprocal Exchanges with Deities Are Affected by Urbanization

Although there is a consensus on religious revival in China, it must be noted that popular religion and institutional religions such as Buddhism and Daoism adopt different strategies to survive the state’s regulations. Many temples that used to facilitate the worship of local deities have to establish some form of intangible cultural heritage or emphasize the deity’s history and folklore to de-religionize. During this process, a temple may earn its lawful place to survive, but risks its communality in the village. Based on studies of rural and urban temples in Henan and Shandong provinces, in this paper, I attempt to understand people’s religiosity and how they conduct the human–deity exchange under social transformation. Popular religion is characterized by the pursuit of efficacy and its embeddedness in rural life. The traditional binary exchange with deities could be used to maintain a relationship with deities as well as offer urgent solutions, while three-party chains of exchange not only constitute a religious gift economy but also offer a religious agent to seek answers. I argue that temples are marginalized and excluded from village life, so people need to find new means by which to continue their religious practices beyond what the state sponsors, and this has led to the flowing of sacred places.

Hackers of critical infrastructure: expectations and limits of the principle of target distinction

ABSTRACT I explore reasons why existing defense has failed to prevent cyber attacks on critical infrastructure. I study one of the least studied notions of cyberspace behavior known as target distinction. Drawn from customary international law, the principle posits that states should tell their wartime targets between combatants and noncombatants and use force only toward military objects. States should not target critical infrastructure, like gas pipelines, because to do so harms civilian populations who use it. I investigate four issues that keeps the principle from preventing attacks on critical infrastructure. The first is its inability to capture the networked nature of critical infrastructure beyond the simple dual-use (military and cyber) purposes. The second defect is the interpretive confusion that the principle generates over the rules of engagement. The third problem is the omission from its coverage of actors other than nation states. By design, the principle condones cyber attacks by nonstate actors on infrastructure, or by those whose linkage to state sponsors cannot be legally established. Finally, the principle is prone to fail when hackers lack proper understanding of what it does and does not allow.

Dealers and Brokers in Civil Wars: Why States Delegate Rebel Support to Conduit Countries

Abstract External state support to non-state armed groups is commonly seen as a direct relationship between a state sponsor and a rebel group. But powerful states often use third-party states as conduits of military aid. These intermediary states are secondary, subordinate principals that are part of extended chains of “dual delegation.” Because intermediaries are likely to have their own separate agendas, powerful states often face a double principal-agent problem when providing material support to rebel groups. The difficulties and problems associated with controlling the agent are reflected in the relationship between the principal and the intermediary. States need to identify the alignment of interests at an early stage, or risk strategic failure. There are two ideal types of intermediaries—dealers and brokers. Case studies of the United States’ support to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and to UNITA in Angola (channeled through Pakistan and Zaire, respectively) demonstrate that intermediaries affect the provision of external support. States engaging in counterterrorism need to look beyond sponsors of terrorism and explore the role of all states involved in the process of conflict delegation. That states use intermediaries when providing support to non-state armed groups indicates that holding states accountable for violating the nonintervention principle under international law should be reconsidered.