Making Sense of NGOs: The Mice That Roar?

Abstract

Nongovernmental Organizations in International Society: Struggles over Recognition. By Volker Heins. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. 211 pp., $74.95 hardcover (ISBN-13: 978-0-230-60036-2). Victims of war, poverty, and other injustices have usually endured additional victimization through marginalization, neglect, and a fundamental lack of acknowledgement of suffering, but the arrival of non-governmental organizations on the international scene has given a new voice to their plight. However, the question asked in all quarters—from donors, governments, multilateral agencies, critics, and intended beneficiaries—relates to the bottom-line of power. In a political order predicated on state sovereignty, what does this new generation of bureaucracy to improve human welfare ultimately mean? Do non-governmental organizations (NGOs) change the behavior of actors so as to alter the causes of harm? Can these mice roar? Nongovernmental Organizations in International Society by Volker Heins ably tackles this issue and captures the essence of the NGO phenomenon in international politics with a thoughtful treatment of the theoretical literature paired with an empirical grounding of case studies. The book explains the emergence and evolution of NGOs in order to understand their special position relative to states and international organizations by blending the English School of International Relations (which examines the norms of international society that shape political outcomes) and the Frankfurt School of communicative action (which posits the importance of “recognition,” or building norms that engender mutual respect and concern for people of different cultures and nationalities). Heins's exploration of non-state political spaces and actors follows the basic steps of scientific investigation, first defining and describing before turning to an analysis and assessment of NGOs. The book begins with a discussion of his approach …