Sovereignty, Democracy, and Global Civil Society: State-Society Relations at UN World Conferences

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments This project started as an idea for a conference paper. Ann approached Kathy to see if she would be interested in writing a paper on international state-society relations by comparing two UN conferences . Kathy suggested bringing Elisabeth in on the project, as she had recently attended the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women. Nine years later, we have collaboratively written five conference papers, three articles, and, now, a book. Although coauthoring is no longer infrequent in our “home” discipline of political science , tri-author collaborations, particularly ones that are sustained over several years, are not exactly the norm. Some readers might be curious as to how we carried out this unusual endeavor. We have been equal partners in this project. We structured our empirical work by deciding what the interesting question, or set of questions, might be asking those questions of different material, wherever it might be found—in UN conference documents and library depositories, nongovernmental organization (NGO) reports, or our own field research; and then coming back together, physically or virtually, to compare notes on our answers. We also generated long lists of secondary material, parceled it out for reading, and shared its insights. We started by focusing on the areas and issues closest to our individual research agendas, but soon branched into others. To put the various pieces together, we each took sections of first drafts to write, and traded them for rewriting . . . and rewriting . . . and editing. This was not always an easy process, and we certainly experienced our fair share of disagreement, miscommunication , and yes, even whining. But as an approach to research , we have found it has much to recommend it. The resulting xi comparative perspectives and theoretical insights are ones we simply could not have generated on our own. They have been illuminating and interesting to us, and, we hope, useful to others. Besides accompanying each other on a fascinating intellectual journey, we have all benefited tremendously from the experience on a personal level—including support for and during our other research projects, tenure cases, several institutional moves, and other delightful and difficult life changes. The daily (or even more often) email exchanges, the occasional conference call, the even more occasional conference reunion, and one very memorable weeklong “workshop” in Fort Collins have provided us with companionship for what is so often the solitary experience of academic life. And so, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each other for the intellectual firepower, keen curiosity, patience, good humor, willingness to compromise and, at times, ability to endure that has made this whole thing possible. We all have other debts of gratitude that we have collectively and singly incurred during the trajectory of this project. We are grateful to Michael Rinella at the State University of New York Press for his support in getting this book into publication. Our ideas were challenged and sharpened by a number of anonymous reviewers over the years as well as by interactions with colleagues at the International Studies Association, the American Political Science Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and in our present and past home departments at Barnard College, Colorado State University, Purdue University, and the University of San Francisco. We would particularly like to thank Jackie Smith and Dimitris Stevis, as well as our research assistants: Vania Brightman, Elsa Dias, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque, Eric Shibuya, and Jennifer Suchland. We are, of course, responsible for any remaining errors of fact or interpretation. We are also very grateful to those on the home front who have kept us going forward with our lives as well as with our work over the past nine years: Kathryn Jay, Roger Hoover, Jay McCann, and our cherished extended, and extending, families. We dedicate this book to our many teachers for their inspiration and guidance down this road, especially our graduate mentors Kathryn Sikkink and Terry Lynn Karl. * * * * * * * This book contains material published previously and used by permission: an earlier version of chapter 2 appeared as “The Sovereign Limits of Global Civil Society: A Comparison of NGO Particixii Acknowledgments pation in Global UN Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women.” World Politics 51, 1:1–35; an earlier version of chapter 3 appeared as “Latin American NGOs and Governments: Coalition Building at UN Conferences on the Environment, Human Rights, and Women.” Latin American Research Review 36, 3: 7–35; and a previous version of chapter 4 appeared...