By Tahseen Wsu Abdullah
Nowadays, a concept that plays an important role in both international politics and international law is the diplomacy of non-state actors. The emergence of this concept is directly related to the fact that the role of these actors has increased.
International organizations as an international framework are seeking to recognize these non-state actors as influential actors. Alongside these efforts, these players are finding their influence and place in international politics and are becoming more influential factors.
There are many factors that have led to the expansion of the role of non-state actors, but one of the most important reasons for the increase in this role is due to another concept called incomplete legitimacy in international statehood.
Obviously, these concepts all stem from an intellectual direction that sees the international world as a society with its own institutions. For example, one of the most important organizations of that society, which carries the role of global statehood, is the United Nations, which was established after World War II. In this context, some intellectuals and experts believe that the global system is not fully democratic because the decision-making role is concentrated only in the hands of certain actors, namely states or powerful states. This issue is often criticized by the states themselves, which are the main decision makers of the system.
From this perspective, the most open intellectual framework is today’s liberal order, within which we can find a place for oppressed nations (those nations that have not yet achieved their supreme legitimate rights, the state or Nation without state). which ignores and marginalizes the role of the oppressed nations.
First, the prerequisite of this intellectual orientation is that it regards the present world as a society of opposing and equal actors, and these actors are the states themselves. This is despite the fact that the international community is still far from the concept of society and the institutions that exist there cannot be close to those of an ordinary society. The second factor is that there is a profound difference between stateless nations (those that do not have their own state but are not completely subjugated) and subjugated nations (those that are oppressed by the dominant nation).
In a stateless nation, although political representation is not fully achieved, to some extent (depending on the form of government), the nation can use some political mechanisms and institutions for its political representation (the Kurdistan Region falls within the Iraqi federal state). This is despite the fact that the oppressed nation not only has no political representation at all but is systematically and fundamentally prevented from being represented in the international and domestic community. The liberal order on which international statehood is based is fully complementary to this systematic repression.