Network States

This is random but have any of the network state people written or talked about some of the modern non-state actors that have acquired significant military capabilities 

Examples include:
- Ansar Allah (Houthi)
- Hezbollah 
- various Kurdish factions (YPG)
- Wagner & other Russian PMC that went rogue 

Feels relevant

Interesting take, if you have a military you are (depending on definition) a state.

You have monopoly on violence. 

But you don’t have citizens that you can tax :(

Typically these groups are referred to as “violent, nonstate actors” 

What’s interesting to me is all of these groups have made their non recognition by other states in the region/world effectively irrelevant by acquiring capacity to harm. Usually through tech - advanced ballistic missiles being a big one

Like turkey doesn’t want the Kurds to have a state, so they bomb them a lot. But to actually get them off the land they control, they’d have to invade or fund a proxy to invade. 

Ansar Allah just faced down western navy coalition, they regularly shoot down reaper drones. Regional enemies have given up trying to beat them, and they don’t even control all the land in Yemen! Pretty nuts

World is changing rapidly