Uncertain Sovereignties: Armed Actors, Hybrid Governance, and Maritime Security

The growing influence of non-state armed actors is reshaping governance across Africa and the Middle East, particularly in contexts where democratic institutions are fragile, contested, or undergoing transition. Armed groups, militias, private military companies, commercial security providers, and criminal networks increasingly perform functions traditionally reserved for the state, including policing, taxation, border management, and the protection of strategic infrastructure.
This panel examines how the privatization and fragmentation of coercive power contribute to ambiguous forms of sovereignty and political authority. Special attention is given to maritime spaces and strategic chokepoints, where local armed actors, state agencies, external powers, and commercial interests compete for control over ports, shipping routes, coastal communities, and maritime resources.
Empirical cases from the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Horn of Africa, the Sahel, and the Eastern Mediterranean demonstrate that security governance is increasingly negotiated through hybrid arrangements rather than exercised exclusively by formal institutions. Although such arrangements may provide temporary stability or localized protection, they can also undermine accountability, restrict civilian oversight, and complicate democratic governance. The panel invites contributions that explore how non-state armed actors gain legitimacy, regulate economic activity, influence political transitions, and interact with domestic and international authorities. Analyses of the effects of privatized security on citizenship, representation, public accountability, and the rule of law are also welcome.
Through comparative analysis of experiences from Africa and the Middle East, the panel will assess how evolving forms of coercion challenge established conceptions of democracy, sovereignty, and state authority in an increasingly uncertain global context.