State actors are nations/countries which are also known as “states”. They have sovereignty over their own territory and that sovereignty is recognized on the international stage by international organizations such as the United Nations.
Non-state actors are organized groups that do not hold any officially recognized territory, though they may control some territory through force of arms. The best example of this today is ISIS who are an armed terrorist group that until recently controlled large swaths of Syria and Iraq.
- The External State Connections
China
Northeastern India is inhabited by Mongoloid tribes who have close ethnic and cultural ties with the tribes in China, Tibet and Burma. Barring Khasis and Jaintias of Meghalaya, almost all hill tribes belong to the Tibeto-Chinese fold and to the Tibeto-Burmese family.
Bangladesh
East Pakistan, Bangladesh since 1971, was host to many insurgent activities unleashed against India in the northeastern region.
The anti-India operations have been largely possible because of the presence of an overwhelming illegal immigrant Bangladeshi population in the northeast. The porosity of the Indo-Bangladesh border has led to many unanticipated problems for India.
Myanmar
India shares a 1670 km long land border and a maritime border of 200 km with Myanmar.
Some Burmese tribals belonging to the Kuki Chin Group are fighting for merger of lands inhabited by them with India.
Countries that are unfriendly towards India find an opportunity in the ongoing turmoil in the northeast and their involvement has made the problems that much more difficult to resolve.
· Non State actors
Act of Terrorism, insurgency or extremism by any individual or a groups which has no direct or indirect linkages with any government or any government organization, is said to be done by non-state actors.
The emergence of non-state terrorist actors and the rise of their international influence is accelerating. Much of their activity is clandestine and outside the accepted international norms. International and state-sponsored terrorism, often motivated by fundamentalist ideologies, backed by secretive but efficient financial networks, use of IT, clandestine access to chemical-biological and nuclear materials, and illicit drug trafficking, has emerged as a major threat to international stability.
They pose threats to multireligious, multiethnic and pluralistic societies. India is at the receiving end of these violent elements and is likely to remain a target of international terrorism in the future. Strategies need to be evolved to counter the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) terrorism as well as cyber-terrorism.