The study of armed non-state actors (ANSAs) has grown exponentially in the last two decades. This article explores the foreign policy of ANSAs as a new empirical domain for foreign policy analysis (FPA) by drawing on various examples from the Middle East to show the merit of this area for novel empirical and theoretical studies. The article identifies the domain of ANSAs’ foreign policy showing how FPA research has so far remained state-centric and almost completely ignores ANSAs. While the external engagement of ANSAs were examined within the scholarship on civil wars, FPA can be adapted to provide systematic scholarly understanding of this phenomenon. Finally, the article explores how studying ANSAs’ foreign policies can revitalize FPA and drive its agenda into new directions.

中文翻译：

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世界政治中的外交政策分析和武装非国家行为者：中东的教训

在过去的二十年里，对武装非国家行为者 (ANSA) 的研究呈指数级增长。本文通过借鉴中东的各种例子，探讨 ANSA 的外交政策作为外交政策分析 (FPA) 的新经验领域，以展示该领域在新的经验和理论研究方面的价值。这篇文章确定了 ANSA 的外交政策领域，展示了迄今为止 FPA 研究如何保持以国家为中心，几乎完全忽略了 ANSA。虽然 ANSA 的外部参与在关于内战的学术研究中进行了研究，但 FPA 可以适应于提供对这一现象的系统学术理解。最后，本文探讨了研究 ANSA 的外交政策如何能够振兴 FPA 并将其议程推向新的方向。