Hall Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era: Think Global, Act Local

Nina Hall (Johns Hopkins Univ. - School of Advanced International Studies) has published Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era: Think Global, Act Local (Oxford Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era explores the role of digital advocacy organizations, a major new addition to the international arena. Organizations such as MoveOn, GetUp, and Campact derive power and influence from their ability to rapidly mobilize members on-line and off-line and are shaping public opinion on many issues including climate change, trade, and refugees. Research in international relations (IR) has highlighted the influence of non-governmental organizations, which wield power through their expertise and long-term, moral commitment to an issue. However, no IR scholars have explored the spread and power of digital advocacy organizations. Nina Hall provides a detailed investigation of how these organizations have harnessed digitally networked power and can quickly respond to the most salient issues of the day, and mobilize large memberships, to put pressure on politicians. She finds that these organizations operate in a globalized world but tackle transnational problems by focusing on national targets. This new generation of activists have formed a strong transnational network, but still see the state as the locus of power.

Eilstrup-Sangiovanni & Sharman: Vigilantes beyond Borders: NGOs as Enforcers of International Law

Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni (Univ. of Cambridge - International Relations) & J.C. Sharman (Univ. of Cambridge - International Relations) have publshed Vigilantes beyond Borders: NGOs as Enforcers of International Law (Princeton Univ. Press 2022). Here's the abstract:

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have generally served as advocates and service providers, leaving enforcement to states. Now, NGOs are increasingly acting as private police, prosecutors, and intelligence agencies in enforcing international law. NGOs today can be found investigating and gathering evidence; suing and prosecuting governments, companies, and individuals; and even catching lawbreakers red-handed. Examining this trend, Vigilantes beyond Borders considers why some transnational groups have opted to become enforcers of international law regarding such issues as human rights, the environment, and corruption, while others have not.

Three factors explain the rise of vigilante enforcement: demand, supply, and competition. Governments commit to more international laws, but do a poor job of policing them, leaving a gap and creating demand. Legal and technological changes make it easier for nonstate actors to supply enforcement, as in the instances of NGOs that have standing to use domestic and international courts, or smaller NGOs that employ satellite imagery, big data analysis, and forensic computing. As the growing number of NGOs vie for limited funding and media attention, smaller, more marginal, groups often adopt radical strategies like enforcement.

Looking at the workings of major organizations, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, and Transparency International, as well as smaller players, such as Global Witness, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, and Bellingcat, Vigilantes beyond Borders explores the causes and consequences of a novel, provocative approach to global governance.

Baughan: Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire

Emily Baughan (Univ. of Sheffield - History) has published Saving the Children: Humanitarianism, Internationalism, and Empire (Univ. of California Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

Saving the Children analyzes the intersection of liberal internationalism and imperialism through the history of the humanitarian organization Save the Children, from its formation during the First World War through the era of decolonization. Whereas Save the Children claimed that it was "saving children to save the world," the vision of the world it sought to save was strictly delimited, characterized by international capitalism and colonial rule. Emily Baughan's groundbreaking analysis, across fifty years and eighteen countries, shows that Britain's desire to create an international order favorable to its imperial rule shaped international humanitarianism. In revealing that modern humanitarianism and its conception of childhood are products of the early twentieth-century imperial economy, Saving the Children argues that the contemporary aid sector must reckon with its past if it is to forge a new future.

O'Sullivan: The NGO Moment: The Globalisation of Compassion from Biafra to Live Aid

Kevin O'Sullivan (National Univ. of Ireland, Galway - History) has published The NGO Moment: The Globalisation of Compassion from Biafra to Live Aid (Cambridge Univ. Press 2021). Here's the abstract:

This book is a study of compassion as a global project from Biafra to Live Aid. Kevin O'Sullivan explains how and why NGOs became the primary conduits of popular concern for the global poor between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s and shows how this shaped the West's relationship with the post-colonial world. Drawing on case studies from Britain, Canada and Ireland, as well as archival material from governments and international organisations, he sheds new light on how the legacies of empire were re-packaged and re-purposed for the post-colonial era, and how a liberal definition of benevolence, rooted in charity, justice, development and rights became the dominant expression of solidarity with the Third World. In doing so, the book provides a unique insight into the social, cultural and ideological foundations of global civil society. It reveals why this period provided such fertile ground for the emergence of NGOs and offers a fresh interpretation of how individuals in the West encountered the outside world.

Lohne: Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice

Kjersti Lohne (Univ. of Oslo) has published Advocates of Humanity: Human Rights NGOs in International Criminal Justice (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here’s the abstract:

Advocates of Humanity offers an analysis of international criminal justice from the perspective of sociology of punishment by exploring the role of human rights organizations in their mobilization for global justice through the International Criminal Court (ICC). Based on multi-sited ethnography, primarily in The Hague and Uganda, the author approaches the transnational networks of NGOs advocating for the ICC as an ethnographic object. A central objective is to explore how connections are made, and how forces and imaginations of global criminal justice travel. By analyzing how international criminal justice is arranged spatially, and as such expresses social, political, and cultural relations of power, Advocates of Humanity shows how international criminal justice is situated in particular spaces, networks, and actors, and how they structure the imaginations of justice circulating in the field. From a sociology of punishment perspective, it compares the 'penal imaginations' of domestic and international criminal justice, and considers the particularly central role of victims as a universalized symbol of humanity for the legitimacy of international criminal justice. With clear global asymmetries emerging from the work, Advocates of Humanity provides descriptive as well as explanatory understandings of criminal punishment 'gone global', analyzing its social causation while examining its cultural meanings, particularly as regards its role as an expression of 'the international' will to punish. To whom is it meaningful, and why?

Stephen & Zürn: Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State

Matthew D. Stephen (WZB Berlin Social Science) & Michael Zürn (WZB Berlin Social Science) have published Contested World Orders: Rising Powers, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Politics of Authority Beyond the Nation-State (Oxford Univ. Press 2019). Here's the abstract:

World orders are increasingly contested. As international institutions have taken on ever more ambitious tasks, they have been challenged by rising powers dissatisfied with existing institutional inequalities, by non-governmental organizations worried about the direction of global governance, and even by some established powers no longer content to lead the institutions they themselves created. For the first time, this volume examines these sources of contestation under a common and systematic institutionalist framework. While the authority of institutions has deepened, at the same time it has fuelled contestation and resistance.

In a series of rigorous and empirically revealing chapters, the authors of Contested World Orders examine systematically the demands of key actors in the contestation of international institutions. Ranging in scope from the World Trade Organization and the Nuclear Non-proliferation Regime to the Kimberley Process on conflict diamonds and the climate finance provisions of the UNFCCC, the chapters deploy a variety of methods to reveal just to what extent, and along which lines of conflict, rising powers and NGOs contest international institutions. Contested World Orders seeks answers to the key questions of our time: Exactly how deeply are international institutions contested? Which actors seek the most fundamental changes? Which aspects of international institutions have generated the most transnational conflicts? And what does this mean for the future of world order?

Haddad: The Hidden Hands of Justice: NGOs, Human Rights, and International Courts

Heidi Nichols Haddad (Pomona College - Politics) has published The Hidden Hands of Justice: NGOs, Human Rights, and International Courts (Cambridge Univ. Press 2018). Here's the abstract:

The Hidden Hands of Justice: NGOs, Human Rights, and International Courts is the first comprehensive analysis of non-governmental organization (NGO) participation at international criminal and human rights courts. Drawing on original data, Heidi Nichols Haddad maps and explains the differences in NGO participatory roles, frequency, and impact at three judicial institutions: the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Human Rights System, and the International Criminal Court. The Hidden Hands of Justice demonstrates that courts can strategically choose to enhance their functionality by allowing NGOs to provide needed information, expertise, and services as well as shame states for non-cooperation. Through participation, NGOs can profoundly shape the character of international human rights justice, but in doing so, may consolidate civil society representation and relinquish their roles as external monitors.

Chesterman: How 'Public' is Public International Law?

Simon Chesterman (National Univ. of Singapore - Law) has posted How 'Public' is Public International Law? Towards a Typology of NGOs and Civil Society Actors. Here's the abstract:

How “public” is public international law? Despite its natural law origins, international law has long privileged the role of the state. Today, NGOs and civil society actors play an increasingly important role — offering a voice for the disenfranchised through their advocacy, and a helping hand for the disadvantaged through their operations. Calls for accountability of these actors are understandable, but often founder on their diversity. This paper therefore develops a typology of such actors, based on their activities and their drivers. That typology better reflects the reasons for and circumstances in which accountability is appropriate. In addition, it suggests a possible evolution in the international order where the status of an actor (state, intergovernmental organization, NGO, etc) is less important than its function.

Stroup & Wong: The Authority Trap: Strategic Choices of International NGOs

Sarah S. Stroup (Middlebury College - Political Science) & Wendy H. Wong (Univ. of Toronto - Political Science) have published The Authority Trap: Strategic Choices of International NGOs (Cornell Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

Not all international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are created equal, Some have emerged as "leading INGOs" that command deference from various powerful audiences and are well-positioned to influence the practices of states, corporations, and other INGOs. Yet Sarah S. Stroup and Wendy H. Wong make a strong case for the tenuous nature of this position: in order to retain their authority, INGOs such as Greenpeace, Oxfam, and Amnesty International refrain from expressing radical opinions that severely damage their long-term reputation. Stroup and Wong contend such INGOs must constantly adjust their behavior to maintain a delicate equilibrium that preserves their status.

Activists, scholars, and students seeking to understand how international organizations garner and conserve power—and how this affects their ability to fulfill their stated missions—will find much of value in The Authority Trap. The authors use case studies that illuminate how INGOs are received by three main audiences: NGO peers, state policymakers, and corporations. In the end, the authors argue, the more authority an INGO has, the more constrained is its ability to affect the conduct of world politics.

McMahon: The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and Beyond

Patrice C. McMahon (Univ. of Nebraska - Political Science) has published The NGO Game: Post-Conflict Peacebuilding in the Balkans and Beyond (Cornell Univ. Press 2017). Here's the abstract:

In most post-conflict countries nongovernmental organizations are everywhere, but their presence is misunderstood. In The NGO Game Patrice McMahon investigates the unintended outcomes of what she calls the NGO boom in Bosnia and Kosovo. Using her years of fieldwork and interviews, McMahon argues that when international actors try to rebuild and reconstruct post-conflict countries, they often rely on and look to NGOs. Although policymakers and scholars tend to accept and even celebrate NGO involvement in post-conflict and transitioning countries, they rarely examine why NGOs have become so popular, what NGOs do, or how they affect everyday life.

After a conflict, international NGOs descend on a country, local NGOs pop up everywhere, and money and energy flow into strengthening the organizations. In time, the frenzy of activity slows, the internationals go home, local groups disappear from sight, and the NGO boom goes bust. Instead of peace and stability, the embrace of NGOs and the enthusiasm for international peacebuilding turns to disappointment, if not cynicism. For many in the Balkans and other post-conflict environments, NGOs are not an aid to building a lasting peace but are part of the problem because of the turmoil they foster during their life cycles in a given country. The NGO Game will be useful to practitioners and policymakers interested in improving peacebuilding, the role of NGOs in peace and development, and the sustainability of local initiatives in post-conflict countries.

Dothan: A Virtual Wall of Shame: The New Way of Imposing Reputational Sanctions on Defiant States

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has published A Virtual Wall of Shame: The New Way of Imposing Reputational Sanctions on Defiant States (Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, Vol. 27, no. 2, pp. 141-189, 2017). Here's the abstract:

What happens after an international court finds a state has violated international law? Many realize today that states often fail to comply with such judgments. International courts like the European Court of Human Rights (“ECHR”) have to rely on the help of Non-Governmental Organizations (“NGOs”) to shame states into compliance. In 2011, the body charged with enforcing judgments of the ECHR launched a new website dedicated to publishing reports by NGOs that criticize states for noncompliance with ECHR judgments. This website published hundreds of reports, as well as the responses of some accused states. The Article analyzes all the reports published in the first four years since the website was created. This analysis, together with interviews with many of the NGO lawyers involved, sheds light on the way reputational sanctions work in international law. It reveals that NGOs focus most of their attention on legally important cases and on cases that address severe violations. It also shows that NGOs focus on states that usually comply with their international obligations instead of on states that regularly fail to comply with international law.

Dothan: A Virtual Wall of Shame: The New Way of Imposing Reputational Sanctions on Defiant States

Shai Dothan (Univ. of Copenhagen - Law) has posted A Virtual Wall of Shame: The New Way of Imposing Reputational Sanctions on Defiant States (Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

What happens after an international court finds a state violated international law? Many realize today that states often fail to comply with such judgments. International courts like the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) have to rely on the help of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to shame states into compliance. In 2011, the body charged with enforcing judgments of the ECHR launched a new website dedicated to publishing reports by NGOs that criticize states for noncompliance with ECHR judgments. This website published hundreds of reports, as well as the responses of some accused states. The paper analyzes all the reports published in the first four years since the website was created. This analysis, together with interviews with many of the NGO lawyers involved, sheds light on the way reputational sanctions work in international law. It reveals that NGOs focus most of their attention on legally important cases and on cases that address severe violations. It also shows that NGOs focus on states that usually comply with their international obligations instead of on states that regularly fail to comply with international law.

Rubenstein: Between Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs

Jennifer Rubenstein (Univ. of Virginia - Politics) has published Between Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs (Oxford Univ. Press 2015). Here's the abstract:

This book provides the first book-length, English-language account of the political ethics of large-scale, Western-based humanitarian INGOs, such as Oxfam, CARE, and Doctors Without Borders. These INGOs are often either celebrated as heroes or do-going machines or maligned as incompetents 'on the road to hell'. In contrast, this book suggests the picture is more complicated.

Drawing on political theory, philosophy, and ethics, along with original fieldwork, this book shows that while humanitarian INGOs are often perceived as non-governmental and apolitical, they are in fact sometimes somewhat governmental, highly political, and often 'second-best' actors. As a result, they face four central ethical predicaments: the problem of spattered hands, the quandary of the second-best, the cost-effectiveness conundrum, and the moral motivation trade-off.

This book considers what it would look like for INGOs to navigate these predicaments in ways that are as consistent as possible with democratic, egalitarian, humanitarian and justice-based norms. It argues that humanitarian INGOs must regularly make deep moral compromises. In choosing which compromises to make, they should focus primarily on their overall consequences, as opposed to their intentions or the intrinsic value of their activities. But they should interpret consequences expansively, and not limit themselves to those that are amenable to precise measurements of cost-effectiveness. The book concludes by explaining the implications of its 'map' of humanitarian INGO political ethics for individual donors to INGOs, and for how we all should conceive of INGOs' role in addressing pressing global problems.

Barrat: Status of NGOs in International Humanitarian Law

Claudie Barrat (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) has published Status of NGOs in International Humanitarian Law (Brill | Nijhoff 2014). Here's the abstract:

In Status of NGOs in International Humanitarian Law, Claudie Barrat examines the legal framework applicable to NGOs in situations of armed conflict. The author convincingly demonstrates, contrary to convention, that in addition to the ICRC, the National Societies and the IFRC, numerous other NGOs referenced in humanitarian law treaties have a legal status in IHL and therefore legitimate claim to employ IHL provisions to respond to current challenges. On the basis of clear and thorough definitions of these entities, Barrat argues that existing NGOs meeting stringent definition can benefit from customary rights and obligations in both international and non-international armed conflict.

Dolidze: The Arctic Sunrise and NGOs in International Judicial Proceedings

Anna Dolidze (Univ. of Western Ontario - Law) has posted an ASIL Insight on The Arctic Sunrise and NGOs in International Judicial Proceedings.

Ben-Ari: The Legal Status of International Non-Governmental Organizations: Analysis of Past and Present Initiatives (1912-2012)

Rephael H. Ben-Ari has published The Legal Status of International Non-Governmental Organizations: Analysis of Past and Present Initiatives (1912-2012) (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013). Here's the abstract:

The discourse regarding the legal status of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) is not new; in fact, it has already progressed throughout the last 100 years. However, most of the proposals to grant official status to INGOs, or to otherwise regulate their cross-border activity, are relatively unknown to international lawyers. A perusal of these initiatives against their unique historical background will prove highly significant in dissecting the complexities involved in formulating a comprehensive scheme for the regulation of INGOs. Innovatively, this work outlines and evaluates the sequence of attempts to propose a formal status for INGOs. It demonstrates how this historical contextual analysis provides an invaluable perspective that is essential for the informed review of contemporary schemes and theoretical trends, relevant to the consideration of the status of INGOs. Unfortunately, most contemporary writers and activists who deal with the normative aspects of INGO activity neglect this crucial perspective.

Büthe & Cheng: Private Transnational Governance of Economic Development: International Development Aid

Tim Büthe (Duke Univ. - Political Science) & Cindy Cheng (Duke Univ. - Political Science) have posted Private Transnational Governance of Economic Development: International Development Aid. Here's the abstract:

This paper examines the role of private actors in international development aid, focusing on four new actors or actors who have in recent years taken on new roles: (1) transnational aid NGOs as a channel of delivery for public (governmental) development aid; (2) transnational aid NGOs as development agenda-setters; (3) foundations and corporations as sources of development aid; (4) transnational aid NGOs as private providers of privately funded aid. For each of them, we discuss the sources of their power and influence and examine how ideas about development and aid have shaped the rise of these new players, identifying throughout promising and important areas for future research. In the final section, we consider peer-to-peer development aid and other innovative attempts to solve pervasive accountability problems in development aid. The paper was written as a chapter for the forthcoming Handbook on Global Economic Governance (Routledge), for which is has been accepted for publication in 2013. The posted version is the pre-copyedit manuscript.

Nikol, Bernhard, & Schniederjahn: Transnationale Unternehmen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen im Völkerrecht

Ralph Nikol, Thomas Bernhard, & Nina Schniederjahn have published Transnationale Unternehmen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen im Völkerrecht (Nomos 2013). Here's the abstract:

Transnationalen Unternehmen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen haben einen wachsenden Einfluss auf klassische Völkerrechtssubjekte sowie auf die Herausbildung völkerrechtlicher Normen und deren Umsetzung. Dem Bedürfnis nach einer Evaluation der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen trägt dieser Band, der aus dem gleichnamigen Workshop des Arbeitskreises junger VölkerrechtswissenschaftlerInnen entstand, Rechnung. Dabei arbeiten die Beiträge unterschiedliche Themen des völkerrechtlichen Diskurses zu neuen Akteuren auf, bewerten den Meinungsstand und entwickeln Lösungsansätze. Der thematische Schwerpunkt des Bands liegt in der Aufarbeitung der rechtlichen Probleme in Zusammenhang mit Menschenrechtsverletzungen transnationaler Unternehmen. Ferner werden neben grundsätzlichen Überlegungen auch Probleme aus dem Bereich des Investitionsschutzrechts sowie des Rechts der Vereinten Nationen aufgegriffen.

Heath: Managing the ‘Republic of NGOs’: Accountability and Legitimation Problems Facing the U.N. Cluster System

J. Benton Heath (Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP) has posted Managing the ‘Republic of NGOs’: Accountability and Legitimation Problems Facing the U.N. Cluster System (Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, forthcoming). Here's the abstract:

This Article identifies and critically assesses the crucial but troubled system for the coordination of international humanitarian assistance (the U.N. “Cluster Approach”). Regardless of whether the Cluster Approach actually “helps” in disaster response, it exercises substantial power over affected populations by assigning competences and leadership roles. The built-in mechanisms for controlling this power are unworkable, as they ultimately fail to resolve the tension between humanitarian organizations’ autonomy and the need for coordination. This Article identifies the emergence of an alternative model of accountability, based on mutual monitoring and “peer review”. Drawing on theories of “network” governance and “experimentalism”, this Article teases out the institutional and normative implications of such a model. In particular, the Article argues, a turn toward peer review would demand dramatic improvements in the inclusion of affected populations in the cluster system. This investigation may carry broader lessons for transnational networks and the study of accountability in global governance.

Wong: Internal Affairs: How the Structure of NGOs Transforms Human Rights

Wendy H. Wong (Univ. of Toronto - Political Science) has published Internal Affairs: How the Structure of NGOs Transforms Human Rights (Cornell Univ. Press 2012). Here's the abstract:

Why are some international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) more politically salient than others, and why are some NGOs better able to influence the norms of human rights? Internal Affairs shows how the organizational structures of human rights NGOs and their campaigns determine their influence on policy. Drawing on data from seven major international organizations—the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Médecins sans Frontières, Oxfam International, Anti-Slavery International, and the International League of Human Rights—Wendy H. Wong demonstrates that NGOs that choose to centralize agenda-setting and decentralize the implementation of that agenda are more successful in gaining traction in international politics.

Challenging the conventional wisdom that the most successful NGOs are those that find the "right" cause or have the most resources, Wong shows that how NGOs make and implement decisions is critical to their effectiveness in influencing international norms about human rights. Building on the insights of network theory and organizational sociology, Wong traces how power works within NGOs and affects their external authority. The internal coherence of an organization, as reflected in its public statements and actions, goes a long way to assure its influence over the often tumultuous elements of the international human rights landscape.