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Chapter Nine. Beyond the State: Nongovernmental Organizations, the European Union, and the United Nations
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CHAPTER NINE Beyond the State Nongovernmental Organizations, the European Union, and the United Nations Harald Müller, Alexis Below, and Simone Wisotzki No study of norm entrepreneurs would be complete without considering the role of nonstate actors who have acquired a reputation as serious players in International Relations (Keck and Sikkink 1998; Björkdahl 2002, 45–51). The growth of transnational civil society, as well as international institutions above the state level, and its international impact has been one of the characteristics of the era of globalization. The term denotes, for our field, international governmental organizations (igos) and nongovernmental organizations (ngos) (Simmons and Martin 2001). Whereas the influence of ngos and individuals for the evolution of norms has been acknowledged for a wide range of fields, the role of igos so far remains underexposed. This chapter pays due attention to the norm entrepreneurial activities of both types of nonstate actors. While the security sector is definitely the hardest to penetrate for civilian actors lacking state power and the sources of state legitimacy, ngos have still emerged as influential actors in arms control. Especially at times of stagnation or of suddenly emerging opportunities, they have jumped in and pushed reluctant governments to tackle issues of over-armament or of atrocious types of weapons. More than a hundred years ago the first ngos campaigned for disarmament. After World War II, their activities became more focused on nuclear disarmament . The global peace movement protested in cycles against the nuclear arms race. Experts established the Pugwash movement in the mid-1950s, and other networks of scientists such as the Federation of Atomic Scientists searched for Beyond the State [297] ways out of the nuclear stalemate (Rotblat 1982, 1995; Knopf 2012, 191). With the end of the Cold War, the issue of a nuclear-weapon-free world gained new prominence (Fisher 1999). At the same time, movements and the commitment to humanitarian, conventional arms control gained unprecedented momentum . In this chapter, we focus on both nuclear arms control and humanitarian arms control because these areas are where the strengths and limits of ngos are most evident. igos are also credited with growing importance as globalization forces nation-states to pursue national objectives by international cooperation. However , igos can do only what member states permit. The assumption that they have the ability to draft an independent agenda is, however, the prerequisite for conceptualizing igos as norm entrepreneurs: they must be capable of devising a normative vision and acting strategically over time to turn this vision into reality. In the second section, we assess the role of ngos—the archetype norm entrepreneurship —on norm evolution within the fields of wmd and humanitarian arms control. In the third section, we scrutinize the record of norm entrepreneurship of two quite different international entities, the eu and the United Nations. NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AS NORM ENTREPRENEURS According to Jeffrey Knopf, ngos are usually defined by what they are not, governments or international organizations. Some definitions stress that ngos work beyond pure self-interest and that they are motivated by shared moral convictions. Others point to the nonviolent character of ngos in order to distinguish them from other nonstate actors such as guerilla movements. This chapter follows the definition by Knopf, who includes interest groups and social movements but explicitly excludes profit-seeking business associations (Knopf 2012, 171–75). The relevance of ngos in arms control has increased in the last two decades due to a shift of concern away from traditional national security to human security (Atwood 2002, 6). With the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (icbl), the first transnational action network (tan) successfully lobbied for a ban on an entire weapon category (Carpenter 2011). The icbl managed to speak with one voice and served as a model for other tans such as the Cluster [54.224.70.148] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 15:10 GMT) [298] chapter nine Munitions Coalition (cmc). In humanitarian arms control, ngos and their transnational action networks have become successful norm entrepreneurs in the different stages of norm dynamics. Regarding wmd, their role has been far more limited. Jeffrey Knopf (2012) distinguishes four types of ngos according to their orientation (elite/grassroots) and policy focus (consulting/neutrality): advocacy groups, think tanks, social movements, and education groups. Beyond these characteristics, ngos differ regarding their form of organization, membership, and aims. Expert ngos, such as the Acronym Consortium, the Programme for Promoting Nuclear Non-Proliferation (ppnn), the Monterey Institute of International Studies (miis), or the Verification Research...