Citizenship: Are We Really in an Age of Militias?

Published: May 3, 2022, 8:53 p.m.

A cursory survey of contemporary media, policy, and academic landscapes suggests that we live in an age of militias, in which they are increasingly prevalent actors and a growing political challenge in armed conflicts. But are there really more militias now than ever before? Or is there just more attention given to them?\xa0\nIn this episode of \u201cTransnational Trends in Citizenship\u201d\u2014the new season of\xa0Order from Ashes\u2014scholar Jacob Mundy discusses what might be driving the \u201cmilitiafication\u201d of thinking about mass organized violence. The legacies of \u201cnew war\u201d theories and the emerging global order\u2014in which North Atlantic powers no longer call all the shots\u2014are essential to understanding the alleged age of militias.\xa0\nWhile there are ways in which militias play an important role in constituting the global terrain of organized violence, this role does not appear to be proportionally larger in recent years than in previous decades. How can we explain, then, the disproportionate intellectual and policy weight given to militias?\xa0\nThis podcast is part of \u201cTransnational Trends in Citizenship: Authoritarianism and the Emerging Global Culture of Resistance,\u201d a TCF project supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Open Society Foundations.\xa0\nParticipants include:\nJacob Mundy, associate professor in peace and conflict studies, Colgate University\nNaira Antoun, director, Transnational Trends in Citizenship, Century International