Violent non-State Actors and New Forms of Governance: Exploring the Colombian and Venezuelan Border Zone

Journal Title: Journal of Human Security - Year 2019, Vol 15, Issue 1

Abstract

This article explores the causes underlying a strong presence of violent non-state actors (VNSAs) in South America. Based on a case study of the border area between Colombia and Venezuela, the research relies on a broad empirical data collected from newspapers, official documents and interviews. The analytical perspective has been grounded on a theoretical framework of four dimensions: (i) funding and illegal activities, (ii) presence in strategic regions, (iii) low state presence and (iv) violence, which identifies different forms of presence of VNSAs. When questioned about how VNSAs create new forms of alternative governance in a territorial space of fragile statehood, the results tend to reveal a context in which state governance seems to overlap the alternative and illegal governance of VNSAs, creating a fragile and hybrid governance in the region.

Authors and Affiliations

Rafael Duarte Villa, Marília Carolina Souza Pimenta

Keywords

Related Articles

Fragile States, Infectious Disease and Health Security: The Case for Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste is a very young and developing nation state. Endemic infectious disease and weakened health security coupled with its growing and inclusive public institutions keep Timor-Leste fragile and in transition on th...

Human Security: China’s Discourses and Experience

This article addresses three research questions by elaborating on how the idea of human security is understood or defined by the government and social actors in China; how the distinction between the “protection” aspect...

A Review of ‘Human Insecurities in Southeast Asia’

Debates on human insecurities are crucial in a changing world that witnesses high social inequality, degradation of environment, social tensions and a growing violation of human rights. Unfortunately, all these issues pe...

Community-Oriented Policing: Political, Institutional and Technical Reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police

Community-police relations in Pakistan are often intricate, as are their reforms. Mistrust, political intervention, meager financial resources, lack of educated/trained human resources, over-expectations and miscommunica...

Doing Justice to Human Security: A Textbook in Tune with its Time

I begin this brief review of this important volume with the confession that I have not personally pursued a teaching style that has employed a self-acclaimed textbook for many, many years, preferring to construct courses...

Download PDF file
  • EP ID EP471792
  • DOI 10.12924/johs2019.15010006
  • Views 98
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Rafael Duarte Villa, Marília Carolina Souza Pimenta (2019). Violent non-State Actors and New Forms of Governance: Exploring the Colombian and Venezuelan Border Zone. Journal of Human Security, 15(1), 6-18. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-471792