Shift in the State Centric System –Emergence of the Non State Actors (NSAs)

A single tweet from a well-known activist can move a government‘s policy faster than a foreign ministry’s official protest. A company’s decision on where to build a factory can matter more to a region‘s economy than its own government’s five-year plan. Neither the activist nor the company is a state — and fifty years ago, a course on international relations would barely have mentioned either. This topic is about that shift: how a world once explained almost entirely through the actions of sovereign states came to need a much longer cast list.

In two minutes

Since the mid-twentieth century — and especially since the Cold War ended — international relations has moved from a purely state-centric view to one that must also account for non-state actors (NSAs): individuals and organisations with real influence on world affairs but no formal allegiance to, or authority from, any single state.

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