Migrant integration in Germany: the role of non-state actors

Many observers view the 1972 United Nations (UN) Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm, as the event that heralded the active involvement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in international policy making. In the intervening years, NGO participation in international policy making has grown exponentially, as has the number of multilateral environmental conventions, global environmental conferences and other efforts to facilitate a global governance of the human environment. The increasing numbers of NGOs with a stake in global environmental politics has been well documented, as has the presence at multilateral negotiations and their influence on negotiation outcomes (Betsill and Corell 2008). This paper examines the role and influence of non-state actors (NSAs) in multinational, supranational and transnational policy making. We have selected three models of rulemaking to help explain the role and influence of NSAs in different governance systems, reflecting developments within global environmental governance over the past three decades. Whereas multinational cooperation remained the model of choice whenever international environmental rules were created until the 1980s, the model has been joined in recent years by supranational and transnational rulemaking models. We begin by briefly reviewing the three models before presenting three case studies. In the first we examine how NSAs brought their influence to bear in a particular case of multinational environmental negotiations: the International Whaling Commission (IWC). This should shed light on some of the conditions that allow NGOs to exert such a high degree of influence in multinational policy-making processes. Next we explore the role and influence of NSAs in the making of the European Union (EU) Emissions Trading System (ETS). This is a prime example of supranational policy making, and serves to demonstrate the complexity of assessing the influence of NSAs in a dense institutional context. Focusing on social and environmental certification programs, the third case examines a growing tendency for NSAs to act as transnational rule makers in policy areas where states have been unwilling or unable to provide governance. Three Models of Rule Making and the Role of Non-State Actors In multinational cooperation, here represented by the IWC, member states enjoy in principle full authority. The legitimacy of rule-making is ensured by consent between sovereign states based on international law. In this liberal intergovernmental rule-making model, NSAs belong to the set of domestic special interest organizations with sufficient clout to influence negotiating positions. Of course, their efforts to influence negotiation positions meet with varying success; nation-states always have the final word. In supranational cooperation, in this paper represented by the EU ETS scheme, nationstates have transferred some of their sovereignty to other actors. In the EU case, this is most visible is the rules on qualified majority voting, co-decision making by the European Parliament and the policy-initiating role of the Commission. In short, as the consent of a state in itself is sometimes wanting in terms of legitimacy, there need additional sources of

Cyberwarfare has become one of the most prominent aspects of global geopolitical competition, introducing a new dimension of conflict involving states and non-state actors. Although research on the role of states in cyber warfare has been amplacious, research on the role of non-state actors is still limited. This study aims to analyze the role and impact of non-state actors in global cyber warfare. In cyber warfare, non-state actors can exploit the vulnerabilities of security systems to achieve their political or ideological goals, changing geopolitical dynamics in unexpected ways. Case studies raised in this study include cyber attacks by Anonymous groups against governments and companies, cyber acts of terrorism by ISIS, manipulation of information by extremist groups to achieve their political goals, and the use of digital propaganda in regional conflicts. By paying attention to the concept of force and security in the perspective of realism, this research is expected to provide a better understanding of how non-state actors influence global geopolitical dynamics through cyber warfare. The implication of this research is the importance of strengthening national cyber defense and international cooperation in the face of threats presented by non-state actors in the cyber domain.

The People’s Republic of China (China) is a key country for achieving the global 1.5°C climate target. Since 2006, it has become the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG). Despite this increased relevance of China for effective climate governance, we lack a holistic understanding of China’s factual role in climate governance, both domestically and on the international stage. To advance our knowledge of China’s role and relevance in climate governance, we perform a systematic literature review in the field of climate governance between 2009 and 2019. We identify four main research themes that structure the scholarly debate on China's climate governance, distilled from a review of 250 articles. These are: a) the motivations behind China’s climate action; b) available policy instruments for governing climate change; c) the role of non-state actors; and d) comparative analysis between China and other countries. We found that the current literature focuses predominantly on how to govern climate change at specific levels through a range of case studies. What is missing is an assessment of the coherence, or lack thereof, among different policy levels and policy instruments, as well as a detailed analysis of the role and relevance of non-state actors in China’s climate governance. We encourage scholars to factor in these gaps when developing future research.

This chapter engages the key legal debates surrounding the role of non-state actors (NSAs) in climate law. NSAs—a wide category that reflects the expansion of international climate governance beyond the state—include entities as diverse as individuals, companies, international organizations, industry associations, cities, indigenous peoples, and civil-society organizations. Over the past decades, and especially since the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the many roles of NSAs in addressing climate change have attracted significant interest from treaty negotiators, business man-agers, environmental activists, policymakers, and researchers. Seen as performing vital functions ranging from innovation and agenda-setting to implementation, monitoring, and enforcement, NSAs are widely considered as bringing about dynamic forms of climate governance. The potential of direct mitigation effort by NSAs, such as voluntary emission-reduction commitments by companies and cities, is similarly highlighted as a key component in any future solution to climate change. The growing climate action by NSAs forces a rethink of the legal underpinnings of the climate regime and opens new perspectives on the logic of NSA-driven climate governance. This chapter discusses the legal dynamics of non-state climate governance. Using three archetypical NSAs—companies, cities, and civil-society organizations—as proxies, the chapter isolates three primary debates that frame the interactions between NSAs and climate law. These debates focus on the responsibility of NSAs for causing climate change, the legal techniques of NSA governance, and the role of NSAs as agents of legal change and they reflect the rise of polycentric climate governance and illustrate the expansion of climate law beyond its original emphasis on states. However, the discussion also exposes the difficulties that emerge when embedding different NSAs in a single conceptual frame, as well as the limits of NSA-driven governance more broadly.

Republic of Moldova: Diaspora and Diaspora policy. In this article the Moldovan Diaspora and Moldova’s policy regarding Diasporas phenomena are researched. The historical and the contemporary contexts of formation of Moldovan Diasporas are revealed. The roles of Moldovan citizens’ labor migration, as well as the formation of Moldovan communities and Diasporas abroad are analyzed. The main directions of Moldova’s Diaspora policy are shown: visa free regime and readmission; mobility and circular migration; juridical and social protection of Moldovan migrants abroad; the return and reintegration of Moldovan labor migrants into their homeland’s society. The role of state bodies in the development and implementation of migration policies on a national level is analyzed; the institutional changes and role of the Bureau for the Relations with Diaspora in the coordination of Moldovan state structures’ activity towards working with the Moldovan Diaspora is demonstrated. The role of non-state actors (migrant associations, Diaspora congresses, the church, trade unions, and other) in maintaining of language, culture, traditions, Moldovan identity, in the social and economical development, and Moldova’s cooperation with the accepting country are revealed. The state’s activity in protecting and respecting the political, socioeconomical, and cultural rights of Moldovan emigrants is characterized

Actors outside of government have a crucial role to play in building, strengthening and sustaining a country’s system for monitoring and evaluation. Specifically, the role of parliament, civil society and donors can improve, in innovative ways, the operations of government monitoring and evaluation systems. For Zambia, these actors are key in the development process of the country and their role in making the public sector monitoring and evaluation system better becomes significant. This research study investigated the participation of parliament, civil society organisations and donors in strengthening Zambia’s whole-of-government monitoring and evaluation system. It was found that although their role was recognised, it was rather weak and fragmented. There was generally lack of formalised arrangements pertaining to how these actors needed to engage government in strengthening the function of monitoring and evaluation across the public sector. While donors provided some notable financial and technical support, parliament and civil society had weaker evidence. Nonetheless, donor support was not flexible but fundamentally restricted to areas of their (donor) interest as opposed to national monitoring and evaluation priorities. In the midst of these positive and negative aspects regarding the role of non-state actors, the study has brought out salient insights which if addressed may help improve Zambia’s whole-of-government monitoring and evaluation system. The research has established that going forward, the Government of Zambia will need to engage parliament, civil society and donors meaningfully if these actors were to help accelerate the development and strengthening of the country’s system for monitoring and evaluation. Similarly, the non state actors are also challenged to design and implement their monitoring and evaluation activities alongside government priorities and plans.

Contents: Part I Introduction and Sources: Non-state actors in the international system of states, Bob Reinalda The Yearbook of International Organizations and quantitative non-state actor research, Elizabeth Bloodgood Researching transnational history: the example of peace activism, Thomas Richard Davies The United Nations Intellectual History Project and the role of ideas, Francis Baert. Part II Actors Other than Governments:Transnational religious actors, John T.S. Madeley and Jeffrey Haynes Transnational corporations and the regulation of business at the global level, Karsten Ronit Unravelling the political role of experts and expertise in the professional services industry, Angela Wigger Parliaments and parliamentarians as international actors, AndrA(c)s Malamud and Stelios Stavridis Autonomous agencies of the European Union as non-state actors, Martijn Groenleer. Part III Perceptions and Understanding: Liberal political philosophy: the role of non-state actors and considerations of global justice, Geoff Gordon and Roland Pierik Non-governmental organizations and non-state actors in international law, Anna-Karin Lindblom Intergovernmental organizations in international relations theory and as actors in world politics, Joel E. Oestreich Inter-organizational relations: an emerging research programme, Rafael Biermann Civil society and NGO: far from unproblematic concepts, Norbert GA tz Non-state and state actors in global governance, Martin Koch Limitations of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, Dennis Dijkzeul and William E. DeMars. Part IV Nature and Impact: Non-state actors and the transformation of diplomacy, Brian Hocking Dynamism and resilience of intergovernmental organizations in a world of persisting state power and rising non-state actors, Yves Schemeil International bureaucracies: organizing world politics, Steffen Bauer and Silke Weinlich Interest representation and advocacy within the European Union: the making of democracy?, Sabine Saurugger From agenda setting to decision making: opening the black box of non-governmental organizations, Liesbet Heyse Non-governmental organizations and decision making in the United Nations, Jutta Joachim The ongoing organizational reform of the United Nations, Yves Beigbeder Reporting and peer review in the implementation of international rules: what role for non-state actors?, Thomas Conzelmann Accountability of public and private international organizations, Steve Charnovitz Non-state actors and the proliferation and individualization of international dispute settlement, Eric De Brabandere. Part V Separate Worlds: Politics and the world of humanitarian aid, Wolf-Dieter Eberwein Non-governmental organizations in the human rights world, Anja Mihr Non-state actors in the global security world, Carolyn M. Stephenson Non-state actors in the development aid world as seen from the South, Moushumi Basu Cities for citizens in the global South: approaches of non-governmental organizations working in urban development, Diana Mitlin Non-state actors in the global health world, Peter Hough Non-state actors in multilateral trade governance, Dirk De BiAvre and Marcel Hanegraaff Non-state actors and environmental governance: comparing multinational, supranational and transnational rule making, Lars H. Gulbrandsen, Steinar Andresen and Jon Birger SkjA|rseth Bibliography Index.

International intergovernmental organizations play various roles, including settling conflicts, promoting peaceful coexistence, cooperation among member states, human rights, and economic and social development. Regional intergovernmental organizations that act as a last resort are better suited to prevent and resolve conflicts at a region level due to their regional positioning, knowledge, and understanding of the root causes, ability to influence and facilitate conflict settlement, and their legitimacy standing. This paper aimed to explore the role of regional intergovernmental organizations in conflict prevention and resolution with the case of the African Union (AU) in the Nile River conflict. Specifically, the paper looked at factors for and against conflict prevention in the Nile, the AU’s role as a regional intergovernmental organization in preventing and resolving conflict in the Nile River conflict, and the role of non-state actors, IGOs, and UN’s Security Council in enhancing AU’s role in conflict prevention and resolution. The paper deployed a qualitative case study methodology with 20 structured interviews, open questionnaires, and secondary sources to examine the phenomenon. Consequently, the study used an analytical category development matrix to develop meaningful emerging themes from the data collected. The findings and analysis showed various factors hindering AU’s full operationalization in the Nile River conflict, including the African states’ ideology (imported democracy) with sub-factors such as colonial factors, external influence, African politics and leadership, and self-interests. Further, the Nile states have different interests that require a joint solution that caters to each party’s interests, with compromise in consideration. As a regional organization, the AU is well positioned to prevent and resolve the Nile River conflict (what the researcher termed as an Afri-Nile solution). Additionally, the international intergovernmental organizations and non-state actors can enhance the AU’s role through collaboration and cooperation (the researcher termed Cop-Lab). The study supported realism and liberalism theories that explained the Nile states’ rift and the potential for conflict resolution from a regional perspective. However, what works in Africa may be inapplicable in other regions and, therefore, essential to approach regional organizations per context.

This study examined the role of Non State Actors (NSAs) in strengthening the developmental capacity of the state, using a case study of Cross River State, Nigeria. Primary and secondary data on selected constituents of NSAs including Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Privately Owned Companies, Banks, Private Hospitals and Private Schools were analyzed using tables and charts. The results revealed that activities of NSAs significantly enhance the developmental capacity of Cross River State especially in the areas of provision of public services, knowledge and skill acquisition, infrastructural development and employment generation. Besides other recommendations, it was recommended that NSAs and the government should perform complementary roles in enhancing developmental capacity and that the establishment of more NSAs in the rural areas should be encouraged through the provision of special funding and other incentives for NSAs that have their offices in the rural areas.

This chapter examines the role of non-state actors in promoting compliance with climate change instruments and finds that their contribution has been substantial. Non-state actors are proven enforcers – sometimes more effective than states. Climate cases brought by non-state actors to non-climate institutions help to demonstrate this point, and effective mechanisms for non-state access to compliance are modeled within multilateral environmental agreements ranging from Aarhus to NAFTA. The author argues that the role of non-state actors should be expanded as climate change frameworks evolve and compliance mechanisms are strengthened. Leaving the public without standing within formal enforcement mechanisms misses a critical opportunity to promote compliance.

The historical tension between the powers of states and the rights of individuals sets the context for this look at the evolving role of non-state actors in international relations. Global connectivity has diluted state power, blurred borders and added a new dimension of non-state actor empowerment. The author’s firsthand observations, drawn from a career as a Canadian diplomat, bear witness to the ever-increasing role of non-state actors in foreign policy and international relations. This practitioner’s perspective presents some personal observations on how non-state actors have helped to shape Canada–Asia relations, with brief and selective examples from the author’s work in and on Indonesia, Japan, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The piece also offers some concluding thoughts on the significance of this phenomenon for the broader conduct of international relations and the study of foreign policy.

This thesis uses qualitative empirical research methods to investigate the role of non-state actors in promoting compliance with the World Heritage Convention. The study focuses on the Great Barrier Reef and traces Australia's interactions with the World Heritage Committee and other institutions between the years 2010 and 2015. The study demonstrates how non-state actors are able to construct their own legitimacy and assert their own authority by building relationships and deploying expertise at discrete times. The findings contribute to the broader regulatory literature on how the World Heritage Convention operates and on the role of non-state actors in regulation.

Amidst the global growth of the Muslim population, the need for products or services that comply with sharia law has become unavoidable. As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia has declared itself to become a major player in the global halal industry. This can be seen from the changes made by Indonesia in the last decade, both in policy and governance aspects to form an effective halal sector ecosystem as planned in the Indonesia Islamic Economic Masterplan 2019-2024. However, amid several policies implemented by the government, the role of non-state actors, including but not limited to large industries, business groups and MSMEs, community organizations or NGOs, and product influencers, increases and mainstreaming the halal industry in Indonesia cannot be ruled out. Based on a study of several literature related to the halal industry in Indonesia, researchers see that most of the research on the halal industry in Indonesia focuses on discussing strategy and the government as well as opportunities and challenges for Indonesia in developing the halal industry. Therefore, the study aims to discuss the role of non-state actors in forming the halal industrial ecosystem in Indonesia.

After the outbreak of the civil war in Syria, Turkey undertook a prominent role by becoming the leading host country for Syrian refugees. The volume of the flow and the urgency of the refugees’ situation have necessitated the involvement of several actors apart from the state. This study reveals and discusses the role of non-state actors in managing refugees through a field study on Syrians in the Turkish city of Mersin. The role of non-state actors in this process is analysed by discussing and presenting (i) their profiles, (ii) the major types of activities and services that they provide for refugees and; (iii) their contribution to integrating Syrians in Turkey.

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the internet governance agenda pursued by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) since 2003. Surveying the official documents of five major global events on internet governance, the article illustrates that the IRI agenda has been preoccupied with three major issues: first, the digital divide and the significant potential of the internet for economic development; second, the dominant role of developed countries in the management of critical internet resources; and third, the role of non-state actors in internet governance. The latter issue constitutes the main area of contention between different Iranian presidents. The IRI’s state-centric agenda for internet governance under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005–2013) sought to limit the role of non-state actors in order to enhance the hegemony of the state vis-à-vis Iranian society. During the presidencies of Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani (1997–2005 and 2013-present, respectively), however, the IRI agenda has acknowledged the role of non-state actors and been more open to the multi-stakeholder framework of internet governance. The article concludes that the overemphasis on these three issues has led the IRI to ignore the complexity of the emerging regime of global internet governance and, consequently, to overlook prevalent issues such as transnational cybercrime.