Non-State Actors

By Péter MARTON To answer the question in the title:* I would. Ironically, one of the best texts so far on a subject whose study originates from the Chinese context, with examples like the Human Rights Society of China in mind, is this brief paper (by Chris Carothers). A research memo, from a workshop . It is not bad for starters, though, and at least it offers a basic typology that covers "propaganda", "militant" and "development" NGOs. And some of the uses these have for autocratic and, let's say, imperfectly democratic political regimes (such as attracting funding away from genuine NGOs/civil society, or creating the semblance of mass support for government decisions, policies and entire agendas, even). This is great, but of course the political regimes in question are more creative than this. Everyone who hasn't been living under a bucket lately is probably aware of the presence of GONGOs in politics, and how that is felt in even mo...

For unrelated projects I have been working on an assessment of the interaction between the media and terrorism. I don't really have the time to write a very thoughtful post now -- any useful thoughts of mine belong in the two papers I've been working on ( one of these is already available, though it's in Hungarian). I can, however, put together something (to which I can keep adding later on) that might be interesting. Here are some noteworthy cases connected to the topic in focus. These can serve as ammunition for some important debates -- perhaps in class, if you are a colleague. These are the cases I used as examples in my own work. 1. Burhan Ozbilici's photo (AP) of Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş as he is holding up his index finger, gun in the other hand, having just killed Russia's ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov. The victim is seen behind him, lying on the ground. This was named photo of the year in the World Press Photo 2017 contest. Altıntaş is in the ce...

By Péter MARTON Because I need to speak at an event about the situation in Iraq/Syria tomorrow, here are some of the recent trends and developments related to ISIS -- my digest of these. These are research notes, effectively. For starters: Aaron Zelin notes how much the ISIS media presence diminished since the fall of Mosul: "In particular, after the fall of Mosul in July 2017, the IS distribution of governance-related media dropped precipitously (by 66 percent) until the complete end of such media activity (on September 12 in Syria; September 16 in Iraq). For reference, at its apex, between June and August 2015, IS released 3,762 pictures related to governance activities in Syria and 3,305 in Iraq. When Mosul fell, between May and July 2017, IS only released 315 pictures related to governance in Syria and 171 in Iraq. And the most recent count prior to the mid-September 2017 rupture was 142 in Syria and 113 in Iraq, between July and September 2017." And yet......

By Péter MARTON In the last two weeks there has been much commentary about the revocation or cancelling of Bill Browder's "visa" (rather his Electronic System of Travel Authorisation permit, or ESTA) by the United States, after Russia had issued an Interpol arrest warrant against him, a measure that could have significantly hindered the activities of a major critic of Russia's Vladimir Putin. Browder (pictured) now has his ESTA back, but it may be interesting to ask the question of exactly how and why it was taken from him even for the short time it was. Or seemed to have been... Browder, originally a US, later (since about 30 years now) a British citizen, set up Hermitage Capital Management, an investment fund, back in the 1990s, and acquired shares in many Russian companies, planting seed capital as well as gaining a foothold in strategically important firms. Shares in Gazprom were eventually in Hermitage's portfolio too. So Browder was in on a lot o...