Activists beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics

Meh.

school book

Who are the most relevant actors in international relations? The answer is states for both neorealists and neoliberals though the latter also consider some non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations (MNC) as remarkable units in international politics. Constructivists, on the other hand, pay considerable attention to non-state actors while they also keep states as central actors. Margaret E. Keck and, Kathryn Sikkink present us a well-designed discussion about the significance of non-state actors of world politics in Activist Beyond Borders. First of all, they classify transnational actors into three groups; MNC and international banks that have instrumental goals, epistemic communities that insist on causal ideas and transnational advocacy networks (TAN) that carry principal ideas.Then, they analyze the significance of TAN in international politics by searching for how do TAN work and how do they change conceptions of national interest and principles of policies organizations? Keck and Sikkink mention four fundamental strategies of TAN; information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics, and accountability politics. They generate information, use symbolic elements, put pressure on states and international organizations, and follow their accountability to international norms. Their effectiveness, however, depend on the issue and actor characteristics that they are targeting. What they do? They cause to reformulation of national interests and they eventually change behavior of states. The principled ideas are the key for TAN and they also lead ideas to transformation of states interests and policies. Activist Beyond Borders has three case studies in the area of TAN; human rights, environment, and violence against women. In these cases, transnational human rights advocacy networks changed authoritarian Latin American governments' notions and policies of human rights. TAN in environment shifted the World Bank's funding policies in corresponding to the protection of environment. TAN in women's rights lead to change state policies in two areas. One of the most significant arguments for IR theory that Keck and Sikkink state is that TAN lead to changes in state understandings of sovereignty. Then states begin to accommodate to re-conceptualized sovereignty at the expense of realist notion of absolute sovereignty. In this sense, they question the realist premises of state interests. They also emphasizes that TAN are important source of new ideas, norms and identities that make repercussions over behavior of states and international organizations. They carry transformative and mobilizing ideas into international system and finally shape fundamentally policies of both state and non-sate actors in world politics. In addition, the authors stress upon the importance of domestic actors for TAN to be successful. Overall, Activists Beyond Borders asserts that TAN endeavor to transform the terms and nature of the debate on fundamentals of international politics.

Exemplifies activist networks in a historical vs current, global vs local context brilliantly.

Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikink's "Activists Beyond Borders" is almost certainly the most significant book yet to have appeared on the role of activist networks in shaping global politics. It's a joy to read, theoretically rich but never overly dense, and it's also inspiring -- probably why it received the prestigious Grawemeyer World Order Award. The introduction, on "Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics," would make an excellent reading for a graduate course on International Relations theory. But the same could be said for almost every chapter in the book. The case-studies build upon the prior research of both authors to present fascinating overviews of the evolution of activist networks in the fields of human rights, the environment, and violence against women. In each instance, the authors are careful to include examples of networks that did *not* crystallize in certain issue-areas, and to explain why some endeavours succeeded while others failed (or were less successful). While the book will be of considerable interest to I.R. scholars, it should also be read by activists, who will learn a great deal about how to maximize their reach and influence.

Fast delivery! awesome book on the impact of activism free press, freedom of speech and geopolitics.

Postmodernist garbage.

いわゆるNGOを中心とした政治集団に関する分析です。国際関係論におけるconstructivismと比較政治学におけるsocial movementの理論に影響を受けた理論的枠組みを基に、著者らの言うtransnational advocacy networkが、国際的な規範の問題にどのように関わっているかを、情報等の観点から分類されたネットワークの行う四つの政治形態を目安にしながら述べています。最初の章で上のような理論的な枠組みを提示し、次の章で過去の史実に照らした具体例を分析、続く三章で現代的な人権、環境、女性の問題を扱い、結論へと至るという構成をとっていますが、実証分析には各章複数の具体例を用いているので、この比較的薄い一冊でも事例は非常に豊富です。また、その中で、規範に関する当事者らの認識の変化に重点を置き、ネットワークを媒介点とする形で国内政治と国際政治とが繋がっている様子を描くことで、国際関係の動態に関する理論的な視点も提供しようとしています。そのほか、epistemic communityとの違いに触れている箇所などもあります。テーマ的に関心がある人にも、国際関係の理論に関心がある人にも読む価値のある好著ではないかと感じました。