Outside Support for Insurgent Movements

When assessing insurgencies, understanding the role of transnational factors is vital. This article explores how outside powers support an insurgency, focusing on four types of actors: states, diasporas, refugees, and other insurgencies. It also examines the pitfalls and limits of outside support and assesses why such support is so hard to stop. The article concludes by offering implications for the conflict in Syria and discussing several policy implications with a particular emphasis on why outside support is hard to stop.