Volume 15, Issue 2, June 2015, Pages 468–472
SOLOMON JOSEPH OKWENDI1 and BARISUA ERNEST NWIDAG2
1 Salem University, Department Criminology and Penology, P.M.B. 1060, Lokoja, Nigeria
2 Capella University, School of Business and Technology, Minneapolis, MN., United States
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Activities of violent non-state actors like the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria have greatly affected the national security of the United States. The methods employed by non-state actors enable some groups to be able to take on much stronger entities by waging asymmetric warfare. For instance, "The hijacking of airplanes was common in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The seizing of embassies was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the blowing up of mid-flight airplanes took center stage in the late 1980s. Other tactics include hostage taking, the assassination of prominent individuals and detonating bombs in government or public buildings. These methods have changed over time, but history has also shown that various non-state actors use different tactics no matter what the time period. The 9/11 attacks showed the deadly combination of a mid-air hijacking, suicide mission, and the targeting of public/government/military buildings. More importantly, it showed how a non-state group could adapt their tactics to defeat Western security apparatuses in order to carry out a massive strike. The second factor is communications technology. Innovations like the Internet and cell phones have enabled groups to communicate quickly and effectively. Because the diffusion of these two innovations is so vast, it presents a great challenge to Western security agencies, particularly if the group is operating in a weak or failed state. This study highlights the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency group, as a Violent Non-State Actor (VNSA) and its implications for the United States national security, and proposes a solution that may reduce the activities of the group.
Author Keywords: Hijack, violent, warfare, hostage, and security.
SOLOMON JOSEPH OKWENDI1 and BARISUA ERNEST NWIDAG2
1 Salem University, Department Criminology and Penology, P.M.B. 1060, Lokoja, Nigeria
2 Capella University, School of Business and Technology, Minneapolis, MN., United States
Original language: English
Copyright © 2015 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Activities of violent non-state actors like the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria have greatly affected the national security of the United States. The methods employed by non-state actors enable some groups to be able to take on much stronger entities by waging asymmetric warfare. For instance, "The hijacking of airplanes was common in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The seizing of embassies was popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s and the blowing up of mid-flight airplanes took center stage in the late 1980s. Other tactics include hostage taking, the assassination of prominent individuals and detonating bombs in government or public buildings. These methods have changed over time, but history has also shown that various non-state actors use different tactics no matter what the time period. The 9/11 attacks showed the deadly combination of a mid-air hijacking, suicide mission, and the targeting of public/government/military buildings. More importantly, it showed how a non-state group could adapt their tactics to defeat Western security apparatuses in order to carry out a massive strike. The second factor is communications technology. Innovations like the Internet and cell phones have enabled groups to communicate quickly and effectively. Because the diffusion of these two innovations is so vast, it presents a great challenge to Western security agencies, particularly if the group is operating in a weak or failed state. This study highlights the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency group, as a Violent Non-State Actor (VNSA) and its implications for the United States national security, and proposes a solution that may reduce the activities of the group.
Author Keywords: Hijack, violent, warfare, hostage, and security.
How to Cite this Article
SOLOMON JOSEPH OKWENDI and BARISUA ERNEST NWIDAG, “THE BOKO HARAM INSURGENCY IN NIGERIA: A NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES,” International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 468–472, June 2015.
