The current meaning of militant does not usually refer to a registered soldier: it can be anyone who subscribes to the idea of using vigorous, sometimes extreme, activity to achieve an objective, usually political.
The Trotskyist Militant group in the United Kingdom published a newspaper, was active in labour disputes, moved resolutions in political meetings, but was not based on violence.
[1] The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, defines militant as "Having a combative character; aggressive, especially in the service of a cause".
The political protests headed by Reverend Al Sharpton have been described as militant in nature in The Washington Post.
In the early 21st century, members of groups involved in Islamic terrorism such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS are usually described as militants.
Militant, at other times, can refer to anyone not a member of formal armed forces engaging in warfare or serving as a combatant.
Protocol 1 of the Geneva Conventions gives lawful combatant status to those engaging in armed conflicts against alien (or foreign) occupation, colonial domination and racist régimes.
which condemns international terrorism and outlines measures to combat the crime, with one proviso: "that nothing in the present resolution could in any way prejudice the right to self-determination, freedom and independence, as derived from the Charter of the United Nations, of peoples forcibly deprived of that right [...], particularly peoples under colonial and racist regimes and foreign occupation or other forms of colonial domination, nor...the right of these peoples to struggle to this end and to seek and receive support [in accordance with the Charter and other principles of international law]."
Militants occur across the political spectrum, including racial or religious supremacists, separatists, abortion opponents and proponents, and environmentalists.
[27] In recent years it has become an increasingly popular approach for doing research[28] especially since it attempts to resolve academic concerns related to representation and auto-critique.