International Law Commons^™

A Theory Of Open-Source Anarchy, David Fidler

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The rise of the importance of non-State actors in global politics challenges existing theories of international relations, and this article presents a new approach to the non- State actor phenomenon by developing a "theory of open-source anarchy." The article reviews the anarchy problem in the study of international relations and how leading theories explain this problem. This analysis questions whether these leading theories can explain the nature of non-State actor participation in contemporary global affairs. The article then develops a theoretical framework that addresses the non-State actor challenge. The framework argues that the nature of anarchy has shifted from a …