Armed Groups

Armed groups are armed organizations that challenge the state’s monopoly of legitimate coercive force. They include a variety of actors, including opposition and insurgent movements, pro-government militias, and community-based vigilante groups. Even though armed groups possess less than one per cent of the world’s small arms, they can often procure sophisticated types of weaponry.  Roughly 60 armed groups have reportedly accessed man-portable air-defence systems (MANPADS) and anti-tank guided weapons between 1998 and 2012, for instance. Some armed groups are also reported to deliberately use their small arms against civilians during armed conflicts, in contradiction with international humanitarian law. 

The Small Arms Survey maps and documents the origins, motivations, structures, and membership of a variety of armed groups around the world, whether they fight against the state, against other actors, or in support of the state. Field research has made it possible to produce detailed profiles, including on arms holdings and sources of weaponry, of several dozen armed groups, notably in the Philippines, Sudan, Uganda, and West Africa. The Survey also contributes to a better understanding of some of the key questions related to armed groups, such as the factors that contribute to their respect—or lack thereof—for humanitarian norms, their impact on human security (including the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict), and lessons learned from disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programmes.

• Armed groups' holdings of guided light weapons

Small Arms Survey Publications

Other Publications

Further Resources

• Armed Groups Project
• Chatham House Piracy and Armed Non-State Actors project
• Geneva Call: THEIR WORDS Directory of Armed Non-State Actor Humanitarian Commitments
• Harvard Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research
• Transnational and non-state Armed Groups