lecture 12 - TANs Flashcards
conclusion
- transnational activism and NGOs have been on the rise since the end of WW2 thanks to technological and political changes
- TANs have emerged since the 1960s as a specific international actor
- through tactics like the boomerang pattern, TANs are able to share information, generate visibility and apply pressure on the international level
- TANs work through persuasion, socialization and pressure
- they use information, symbolic, leverage and accountability politics to pursue their goals
- the conditions of influence depend on the issue and actor characteristics
- TAN politics raise the question the dominance of states in IR
transnational activism historical background
- started before WW2: womens movement + anti-slavery
professionality, density etc. grown enormously past decades (e.g. way more NGOs)
- after WW2 it became ‘‘bigger’’: technological transformation (airplanes, communication)
+ shift in spirit of the 1960s: first it was about religion and tradition, after = more student-organizations etc. that came because states weren’t able to solve the problems of the world
NGO
any international organization not established by intergovernmental agreement
TANs
network or actor?
important role for NGOs
they work together with social movements and other sorts of actors
to create what Keck and Sikkinks call TANs
the growth of NGOs
- growth in…
- fields of activity
- categories of NGOs (national, INGOs, Government Organized NGOs (GONGOs), Quasi NGOs (QUANGOs)
! gov. in the sense of funding, legally no gov. involvement, but a lot of funding from gov. - functional classifications (operational vs campaigning)
(advocacy vs service orientated) - tactical and/or political classifications (conformist, reformist, radical, orderly, obstructive, destructive)
functional classifications
- operational / service oriented: not questioning politics of a situation, but implementing/contracting humanitarian policies that are decided outwards
- campaigning/advocacy: agenda setting for what should be discussed
varieties of transnationalism (all transnatioanl actors)
- Keck and Sikkink
3 varieties
- those who have instrumental goals: interested in extracting resources or generating profits (transnational corporations)
- those who seek expertise + knowledge distribution (maybe give advice)
- interested in shared principled ideas (e.g. TANs): how the world ought to be
TAN definition
TAN includes those relevent actors working internationally on an issue, who are bound together by shared values, a common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services
network
- definition
forms of organization characterized by voluntary, reciprocal, and horizontal patterns of communication and exchange
TAN as network or as actor?
Keck and Sikkink argue that they are both
- actors when acting in unity in relation to a specific issue (e.g. give a hearing as representatives of a specific networks)
- they are also a space where different actors have different opinions and positions -> space of debate
main players TANs
NGOs
media, trade unions, consumer organization
local social movements
- Open Societies Foundation: important funder in many TANs
TANs campaigns e.g.
- Anti-Apartheid 1960s-1990s
- Anti-Nuclear Movement (since 1960s) = nuclear weapons AND nuclear energy
- Human Rights in Argentina (1970s-1980s) = mothers of kidnapped activists crucial in the movement for human rights
- Save Darfur (2004-2010)
- Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS, since 2005) = objective of broad coalition of different actors that want to put pressure on the gov. of Israel to better treat Palestine and Palestinians = not just normal boycotting security, also cultural and economically
!!!!!The boomerang effect!!!!
Keck and Sikkink argue that TANs are useful because of the boomerang effect:
state A policy that is opposed by local NGOs, but gov. doesn’t want to listen (blockage between NGOs of state A and gov. A)
NGOs can mobilize transnationally across a network of likeminded groups/institutions to put pressure on gov.
strategy of mobilizing the network so that other organizations can put pressure on state A to change policies -> political change
key dynamics: blockage, pressure, information
*see picture in the slides
political entrepreneurs
people, not situations that cause change
- not suddenly a ‘‘mood’’ to change something
entrepreneurs are necessary:
organizational missions:
- share info
- attain visibility
- gain acces to wider publics
- multiply channels of institutional access
how do TANs work
- persuasion, socialization, pressure
- information politics (creates network binding + needs to be based on information, is also dramatic + offers solutions) = growing importance of data
- symbolic politics (the ability to call upon symbols, actions or stories that make sense of the situation for an audience that is frequently far away)
- leverage politics (being afraid of the consequences of (not) doing something, leverage can be material/conditionality/linking or moral/normative entrapment (you said you would allow TAN or e.g. human rights etc.))
- accountability politics (gov. commits itself to a principle, networks can use those positions, their command of information to expose the distance between discourse and practice)
Frame alignment & resonance
Frame alignment = rendering events or occurrences meaningful, frames function to organize experience and guide action, whether individual or collective
frame resonance = concerns the relationship between a movement organization’s interpretive work and its ability to influence broader public understandings
TANs conditions of influence
- under which conditions can TANs have influence?
- assessing influence
- issue characteristics
- actors characteristics
assessing influence
Keck and Sikkink: 5 things to look at to determine influence/success TANs
- issue creation and agenda setting
- discursive positions (can they influence them)
- institutional procedures
- policy change
- state behavior
issue characteristics
fundamental to succes of TANs
difficult thing: frame + create a narrative an actor as bad
takes a lot of time + research (e.g. to show that climate change is caused by pollution)
showing impact of actions are important parts of narrative to campaign for something
actor characteristics
- network characteristics: of the TANs are important (dense/strong or weak?)
- target actors characteristics (material and moral vulnerability)
how is K&S’s vision different from Hedley Bull’s concept of Internatoinal Society
Hedley Bull = English school = 80s UK
they agree that the internatiaonal is a society based on common interests and values
they disagree that it’s a society of states:
their vision is closer to ‘‘neo-medievalism’’: overlapping authority and multiple loyalty
world polity thesis + K&S critique
John Meyer, John Boli, George Thomas
international society is the site of diffusion of ‘‘world culture’’ -> explains changes
IOs and NGOs are ‘‘conveyor belts’’ of western liberal norms
a theory that posits that the international society is a site of diffusion of a ‘‘world culture’’
critique: transnational actors have profoundly divergent purposes and goals, and are a space of negotiations
- it removes politics, power and conflict: why do people sometimes disagree?
TAN focuses on norm formation
WP focuses on norm diffusion
how is the TAN approach difffernt from realism and liberalism?
realism has no motor of chnage
liberalism does better: domestic regime type is important
what is the status of sovereignty for K&S
- states remain the main actors
- sovereignty is eroded, but only in delimited circumstances: cosmopolitan comunity can put pressure, but only when there are openings
not following the ‘‘strong globalization’’ thesis
how is the erosion of sovereignty perceived differently in the global north and in the global south?
in the global north, activists perceive it as a positive development, in the South, it recalls imperialism and domination
positive for the North: less abuses
