Participation Of Non-state Actors Research Articles

Patterns and trends in non-state actor participation in regional fisheries management organizations

Non-state actors (NSAs) have proliferated in number and are increasingly acknowledged to matter for global governance of natural resources. This has generated considerable scholarly interest, but there is surprisingly little systematic knowledge about patterns and trends of NSA participation in global fisheries institutions. This article addresses this gap by studying NSA populations, considering more than 500 actors attending commission meetings, in the five tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (tuna RFMOs) between 2004 and 2011. It constructs a theoretical framework drawing on previous insights from population ecology and global governance literature. The articles finds that multiple NSAs participate in tuna RFMOs, but there is no general trend towards increasing proportions of NSAs compared to state participants. Representational diversity was found to be relatively limited, as NSA participants were predominately representing industry interests and from high income countries. Volatility of NSAs varied across RFMOs, but it was clear that industry representatives were frequently repeat participants, while civil society organizations (CSOs) participated only in occasional meetings. Finally, industry representatives were found to participate as part of member state delegations, while CSOs generally participated as observers. The article discusses the implications of the variation in NSA populations across RFMOs, and over time, and in relation to important concerns in the broader scholarly debates on access, influence, representation, and effectiveness in global environmental governance.

Bridging knowledge divides: The case of indigenous ontologies of territoriality and REDD+

This study examines traditional indigenous ontologies of territoriality based on a number of indigenous communities in Bolivia and Colombia to show how they can inform effective implementation of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation plus sustainable forest management, forest conservation and enhancing forest carbon stock). This could help address concerns that REDD+ interventions oversimplify local dynamics and complexities. The concept of territoriality subsumes a variety of definitions and conceptions, some of which are embedded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge and represented in the multiple expressions of collective indigenous identity. We compare and contrast Western and indigenous ontologies of territoriality and identify three ways in which engagement with territoriality can enhance REDD+ implementation and effective non-state actor participation.

Regionalismos e Migrações Internacionais na América do Sul: Contexto e Perspectivas Futuras sobre as Experiências na Comunidade Andina, no Mercosul e na Unasul / Regionalisms and International Migration in South America: Context and Future Perspectives on the Andean Community, Mercosur and Unasur Experiences

Este trabalho busca descrever as relações existentes entre regionalismos e migrações internacionais na América do Sul, mediante a análise da Comunidade Andina (CAN), do Mercado Comum do Sul (Mercosul) e da União de Nações Sul-Americanas (Unasul). Estes processos, que incluem entre seus propósitos o tratamento das migrações internacionais, redefiniram seus objetivos ou incorporaram este fenômeno no marco do regionalismo pós-liberal ou pós-hegemônico. Aqui, fatores como a maior politização da cooperação regional, o “giro à esquerda” dos principais países da região, a emergência de novas narrativas a favor dos direitos dos migrantes e uma maior participação de atores não estatais tiveram um papel essencial. Como resultado, foram criadas normativas regionais sobre migrações internacionais com a perspectiva dos direitos humanos e projetos de cidadania regional. Concluímos com algumas reflexões sobre as mudanças recentes no cenário político regional e o retorno do regionalismo aberto com ênfase na economia e no comércio.

A Legal Mirage: State Responsibility for Non-State Actor Interference with Space Systems

AbstractOuter space is becoming a more accessible and less expensive domain in which to operate. Consequently, growing numbers of state and non-state actors (NSAs) are operating in, to, and through space. At the same time, instances of space-based and ground-based interference with space systems are also increasing, disrupting crucial space-supported services and applications relied on by millions, with great financial and operational costs. The increased participation of NSAs in space activities raises particular concerns, especially the threat of intentional interference with space systems by nefarious actors like terrorist organizations. It also requires consideration of whether states bear responsibility and/or liability for the acts of NSAs with a nexus to those states. At first glance, it is tempting to conclude that one or more normative legal regimes would apply. The potential regimes include international space law, international telecommunications law, and the law of state responsibility. On further examination, however, when it comes to interference, there appears to be no effective legal mechanism to hold states accountable for NSA interference with space systems, which can be exploited by NSAs and challenge efforts by states to enforce “good” behaviour.

Conceptualizing a New Public Diplomacy Model: ‘Intermestic’ Strategies and Instruments to Promote Change in Mexico’s GM Food Policy

Summary Public diplomacy emphasizes the participation of state and non-state actors to achieve common goals. This article recognizes the participation of state and non-state actors engaged in shaping the political environment of a host country to advance common interests, with different levels of leadership. A model comprised of state and non-state actors implementing reactive, proactive and relationship-building strategies and instruments is proposed. In Mexico, regulations for genetically modified (GM) foods have moved from a restrictive to a liberal approach, and this change may be explained by analysing US public diplomacy efforts to promote ideas related to GM foods. This is an ‘intermestic’ issue with international and domestic actors involved. Applying the proposed model thus helps us to understand the strategies and instruments that state actors, such as the US executive agencies, and non-state actors, including MNCs and NGOs, implement to target Mexican stakeholders and generate policy change.

Transnational Labour Governance: A Critical Review of Proposals for Linkage through the Lens of the Rana Plaza Collapse in Bangladesh

AbstractExploitative working conditions in the factories of developing countries like Bangladesh have fueled scholarly arguments for linking labour governance through trade/economic cooperation agreements/arrangements. This article argues that despite rich theoretical analyses of the structural form of these trade/economic-labour linkage mechanisms, less attention has been paid to the conceptualizations of “the social,” which tend to be narrow. These conceptualizations yield a restrictive approach to labour governance, maintaining a sharp difference between fundamental and redistributive approaches to transnational labour law. This approach may focus only on workers engaged in exporting sectors; defend individualized, civil, and political rights; weaken the participation of non-state actors in factory monitoring; and accentuate voluntary forms of corporate responsibility. Referring to some of the challenges in the transnational governance mechanisms launched after the collapse of Rana Plaza, this article argues that it is necessary to consider the aggregate effects of labour deregulation and the distributional problems of labour.

Conflict Management in Indonesia: Policy Perspective and Analysis

This article focuses to analyze the roots of violence and this article examines at case studies from Indonesia. This article also aims at answering the effectiveness of policy in the conflict management by analysing the critical factors that involved in violent conflicts and briefly seek alternative solution to prevent it to happen in the future. This article aims to answer two central questions, firstly, how effective the Indonesian government policy on security and conflict. Secondly, what are the roles of NGOs to support the effectiveness of the policy on security and conflict. To prevent the future conflicts, there are three effective strategies that can be implemented and it need the collaboration between the policymakers and society. First, to design an effective early warning mechanism which able to inform a potential friction that can escalate to bigger conflict. Second, an effective policy to prevent conflict, to manage conflict, and peace building mechanisms in post-conflict. Third, urge the participation of non-state actors in conflict management. The Indonesian government and house of representatives have passed the bill on social conflict management written as Law No. 7/2012 or known as UU PKS. However, UU PKS arguably leaves plenty of loopholes. Moreover, the activities of NGOs on the conflict management can be divided into two main categories: public engagement and advocacy. Public engagement activities focus on services to the public while on the advocacy focuses to maintain communication and put pressure to the government. In public engagement activities, the NGOs offer the service to provide psychological and legal assistance, consulting the victims rights, consulting, legal advice, psychosocial support to the victims. Moreover, in the advocacy approach, the NGOs maintain the discussion and lobby to the government to ensure the peace and justice in law enforcement.

Public Diplomacy: A Pragmatic View on the Variety of Actual Experience

Public diplomacy as a phenomenon of international affairs has many formats, and various actors of world politics differently utilize it. The public diplomacy experience of two modern integration projects – the CIS and EEU is of considerable general interest as it is focused on strengthening multilateral positive interaction and not directed to the creation of only one country’s attractiveness. In the context of cultural cooperation, youth policy, educational cooperation, promotion of foreign policy initiatives, work with diaspora, Russia and its partners increasingly use public diplomacy resources. Activity of Post-Soviet integration participants creates unique effect of complementarity of their efforts in the sphere of humanitarian cooperation. That is increasingly needed in establishing dialogue platforms with participation of state and non-state actors within not only CIS and EEU countries, but also their regional environment.

Youth participation and agency in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

This article examines the participation and agency of young non-state actors (NSAs) in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It utilizes the constituency of Youth NGOs: YOUNGO, as a case study to examine the relationship between selection of participatory strategies, power sources (following Nasiritousi et al. in Int Environ Agreem Politics Law Econ 16(1):109–126, 2016), recognition and agency using ego and alter perceptions. It finds that young people’s selection of participatory strategies and power sources is shaped by the level of agency which they perceive to be available to them. When self-perception of agency is high, young participants offer constructive policy amendments which can lead to recognition and agency, though only within certain policy areas and the silos in which they are negotiated. When self-perception of agency is low, youth interpret this as lack of recognition, leading to efforts to assert their relevance and/or to challenge procedural legitimacy: neither of which are well received by decision-makers. In reality, several of the challenges faced by young participants are not structurally unique to their constituency; however, their lack of financial resources does hinder their ability to fully utilize modes of participation which previous studies have found to be beneficial to other NSAs, such as side-events. Financial constraints also restrict the ability of youth participants, many of whom are volunteers, to develop professional relationships with key actors over time, meaning that the level of agency developed by more established, better-resourced NSAs remains largely out of reach. These findings have implications for the understanding of NSA agency, which has previously been treated as homogeneous and raises further questions regarding procedural legitimacy of the UNFCCC and its role in mobilizing and empowering the next generation.

On the Way to an Anthroparchic Community of Law. The European Union as the Subject of Global Law

According to I. Pernice, the European Union has to be distinguished from an international organization for four reasons at least.First, there is no international organization where citizens have their own political representation and participate in the decision-making process. Second, direct legal action against individuals by directly applicable legislation does not happen. Third, the question of protection of fundamental rights against such ‘international’ power is not an issue. Last but not least, ‘no international organization provides for legal remedies of individuals against measures of that organization since there is no action having direct effect to the individual’. Therefore the author believes that the EU is an organization of citizens albeit having an appearance of an organization between states.Nevertheless one needs to remember that the European Union was founded as an intergovernmental organization by the European states on the principles of international law. That is why it has to be treated as a legal entity comprising the category of international organizations.Inasmuch as the role of individuals in the EU law-making process has been strengthened, their position was rather poor at the beginning of the European integration process. A direct right for individuals to submit a proposal for a legal act to the Commission is a great novelty not seen until now. Strengthening methods of democratic law-making by involving the European Parliament as well as national assemblies in the ordinary legislative procedure is again a fresh start. It is much the same with the system of judicial remedies differentiating the EU legal order from the horizontality of classical public international law.International law as a source of legitimacy for the European Union has always been and is still valid. Nonetheless the history of EU integration demonstrates the continuous evolution of that legal system. Therefore it is increasingly more difficult for lawyers to describe precisely what type of international organization and juridical entity this phenomenon is. It is all the more intricate while seeking a definition in the world of classical international law.An unravelling comes with Rafael Domingo’s theory as the European Union fulfils Domingo’s conditions to become an anthroparchic community of law. It happens through its legal order and participation of non-state actors in the law-making process. In such a case one can believe this juridical entity is also a subject in global law.European integration in the perspective of international law has been being widely analysed so one can easily find some critical papers in this field. This subject has also been examined by political scientists. ‘A sui generis political entity’ as a term defining the European Union is well established in the theory of international relations. Les hommes politiques go even further in their descriptions naming the European Union an unidentified political object (UPO) or the first non-imperial empire. Regrettably these terms cause more confusion than explanation.Despite the fact how descriptions assigned to the European Union are creative and diverse, agreement on what is the actual shape that the EU is taking is by no means easy. The size and functioning of the EU has been shaped and reshaped over the course of history. However the goal of an emerging ‘ever closer union’ is still in search of the paths of real and not ideal accomplishment. In fact, most institutional innovations bear some relation to past experience and borrow from it.

EUROPEAN EXPERIENCE OF REGIONAL POLICY AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN UKRAINE

In Europe over the past decades, the processes of regionalization are actively occurring - the redistribution of the state's power competencies to a supranational or subnational (regional) level. The problems of competitiveness of the regions come to the fore, the increase of which is possible when using not only economic, but also local historical, sociocultural, ecological and other features. "New regionalism" differs from traditional development in conditions of multipolarity of the world, openness, formation "from below", participation of non-state and subnational actors. The new regionalism is a triple regionalism that takes into account not only the economic, but also the socio-cultural and environmental aspects. The advantage in competitiveness is given to regions and territorial communities, where local socio-cultural communications are taken into account most of all. The new European regionalism does not mean abandoning the nation state, but increasing the efficiency of regional development at the expense of human energy. As you know, Western Europe has limited energy and other resources. Therefore, in the global competition, the European Union, from the beginning of its formation, relied on the effective use of human resources. Its potential is significantly increased if a local comfortable environment is created that takes into account the sociocultural features of the territorial communities. Turning to the analogy, this means, for example, for Ukraine, that the people of Galicia do not feel discomfort in their sociocultural environment, and the inhabitants of the Donbass or Chernigov region in their own. Unlike the countries of Central and Eastern Europe that carried out administrative reforms during the period of geopolitical and geo-economic transformation, Ukraine could not realize it in a quarter of a century of independence. A decade ago, the American model of enlarged territorial units was taken as the basis of the territorial administrative reform, now the Polish model dominates in the absence of the state's financial capacity to reform, but with the participation of local businesses in the formation of territorial communities. As a result, the fundamental goal of the reform in improving the manageability of the territories is violated, which is a threat to the Ukrainian statehood.

The Global Governance of Trafficking in Persons: Toward a Transnational Regime Complex

ABSTRACTTwenty years ago, international cooperation against trafficking in persons was close to nonexistent. This changed suddenly and irreversibly in 2000, with the signing of the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons (TIP), especially Women and Children. Since then, regional and bilateral cooperation initiatives on TIP have proliferated. In addition to these interstate agreements, recent years have witnessed the emergence and spread of novel forms of soft or voluntary rule making, developed by intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and private actors. As a result, the governance of TIP has evolved from a state-centric regime to a transnational regime complex, in which public and private actors share responsibilities over various global governance tasks, including information sharing, standard setting, and monitoring and evaluation. In seeking to map out and shed light on the different components of this transnational regime complex, the article proposes a typology of transnational governance initiatives and illustrates its usefulness with an original dataset of 58 private, and public–private schemes involved in various aspects of the governance of TIP. The article then considers the implications of this increasing institutional complexity for international efforts to stop human trafficking. I argue that despite these remarkable institutional transformations and the growing role of private actors, the implementation of TIP rules and norms remains uneven and driven by state interests. Notwithstanding the increasing participation of nonstate actors and IGOs in the governance of TIP, states’ security concerns and their reluctance to cooperate on migration issues continue to drive anti-trafficking policies worldwide.

The negotiation burden of institutional interactions: non-state organizations and the international negotiations on forests

The participation of non-state actors in international politics has been investigated since the creation of international institutions. Yet, the rules, principles and norms of global governance are no longer discussed in single isolated institutions. Rather, with the proliferation of international regimes and organizations, international issues are now negotiated in a context of institutional interactions known as ‘regime complexes’. This poses new questions, in particular on the negotiation burden that these new processes place on international actors. To answer this question, this contribution compares non-state participation in both contexts (single regimes and regime complexes), using the international forest negotiations as a case study. It uses quantitative methods to measure the negotiation burden of single regimes and compare it with the negotiation burden of regime complexes. The negotiation burden of single regimes is found to be insignificant, political interest being the major motivation for participation, while the negotiation burden of regime complexes is found to be real, demanding a certain type of material and organizational resources in order for non-state actors to participate. Yet a certain diversity of non-state representation is maintained within regime complexes, non-governmental organizations being dominant with respect to business groups.

Shifting Paradigms in Wetland Governance: Shaping and Reshaping Conservation

The Ramsar Convention came into force in Nepal in 1988 and it was an expression of the country’s commitment to wetland conservation. Despite this, wetlands continue to degrade rapidly across Nepal. This paper examines the cross-cutting issue of wetland governance in Nepal with a case of a Ramsar site, sheds light on the recent developments and identifies its implications for the future. Wetland conservation has remained centralized in the past, with power vested in the state to manage through ministries and district offices. The irony is that numerous sectoral agencies claimed authority over its governance but failed to deliver its effective management. The paper suggests that wetland governance models will need to improve their design in order to espouse participation of non-state actors and to enhance synergies at all levels (local-district-national). Since there are no blueprint models or panacea for a multi-faceted resource such as wetlands, a critical balance should be maintained between efficiency of the design while ensuring adequate and meaningful space for engagement of non-state actors.

FUTURE TRENDS OF FORMATION OF THE INTERNATIONAL REGIME ON THE PROVISION OF INFORMATION SECURITY

The article discusses the key trends shaping the international regime on information security. International cooperation in this area at the global level encounters contradictions of state interest. The main actors of the information security are the United States, Russia, China and the EU countries (Britain, France and Germany). The main contradiction is developing between the US on one side and Russia and China on the other. EU countries occupy the middle position, gravitating to that of US. The article proves that international cooperation on information security will reflect the overall logic of the development of international cooperation, which is characterized by a new model of cooperation, with the participation of state and non-state actors, known as multi-stakeholder partnerships and multi-level cooperation. The logic of the formation of an international regime on information security is closest to the logic of the formation of the international non-proliferation regime. It is in the interest of Russia to support the trend towards regionalization of information security regime. Russia can form a regional information security regime in the former Soviet Union on the basis of the CSTO and SCO and potentially on a wider Eurasian space. Such regional regime would give Russia an opportunity to shape the international regime and closely monitor emerging information security issues in the former Soviet Union, and remove the potential threat of "color revolutions".

Normative arguments for non-state actor participation in international policymaking processes: Functionalism, neocorporatism or democratic pluralism?

The participation of non-state actors in multilateral institutions is often portrayed as one way of decreasing the perceived legitimacy deficit in global governance. The literature on non-state actors has identified several ways in which these actors can enhance the legitimacy of intergovernmental organisations and global governance arrangements. Three partially competing normative arguments, or rationales, for the inclusion of non-state actors in international policymaking — functionalism, neocorporatism and democratic pluralism — have been identified. Whereas functionalism highlights the contribution of non-state actors to output legitimacy in terms of expertise, neocorporatism emphasises the inclusion of affected interests, and democratic pluralism claims that non-state actors increase input legitimacy through procedural values. These three normative arguments thus offer different understandings of the motives for the inclusion and representation of non-state actors in international negotiations and diplomacy. Through a single case study of United Nations climate diplomacy, we analyse the extent to which the three rationales for non-state actor inclusion are found in views held by state and non-state actors participating in the annual United Nations climate change conferences. Our results show that different actor groups place varying degrees of emphasis on the different rationales for non-state actor inclusion, even though the neocorporatist rationale remains most favoured overall. We discuss the implications of our findings for the democratic legitimacy of increasing participation of non-state actors in intergovernmental affairs and recent trends in the participation of non-state actors in the international climate change policymaking process.

The power of informality: European Union’s engagement with non-state actors in Common Security and Defence Policy

ABSTRACTThis article examines the little explored issue of non-state actor (NSA) participation in the European Union’s (EU) Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Despite the fact that NGOs and civil society are shielded from formal access to CSDP, EU staff in both Brussels and the missions engage with them informally. Drawing on interviews with policy-makers and NSA representatives, the article analyses the practices of the EU in its engagement with NSAs, focusing on civilian missions in Georgia and Palestine. It shows that such engagement is more intense during implementation at the level of CSDP missions rather than during policy-making in Brussels. It argues that a combination of rational choice-based (functional needs of policy-makers and intensity of NSA advocacy) and constructivist (organisational and individual cultures) explanations helps us better understand why CSDP structures open up to NSAs. The article contributes to the nascent academic and policy debate on EU–civil society cooperation in CSDP and, more broadly, to the studies of informal governance in the EU and NSA participation in international organisations.

The Role of Non-State Actors in Reviewing Ambition, Implementation, and Compliance Under the Paris Agreement

Non-state actors will play a unique and crucial role in the implementation of the Paris Agreement. Although much of the focus in the run-up to Paris was on mitigation commitments and actions taken by those actors, this essay focuses on another valuable contribution: to hold the Parties to their obligations under the Paris Agreement. Specifically, it argues that, while the formal avenues for non-state actor participation in review processes – seen here to encompass the review of implementation, compliance and effectiveness – remain limited, there are several other ways in which non-state actors can be, and already have been, influential.

Pelembagaan Regional mengenai Hak Asasi Manusia di ASEAN

Institutionalization of non-traditional issues has become new phenomenon for ASEAN, including those related to human rights in the form of ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR). While its instutionalization has been one of ASEAN’s achievements for its sensitive characters, the AICHR also revealed several complexities. The first problem is related to ASEAN’s further attempts for boosting regional cooperation on human rights among its member states. Diversified political system of ASEAN’s states is deemed as its obstacle. The second refers to regional architecture of ASEAN which is prone to be loosely structured and more focussed on economic development and regional political stability. This paper seeks to explain dynamics among ASEAN’s member states in institutionalizing human rights issues. AICHR has been one of the most successful ASEAN’s achievements in managing non-traditional issues and promoting participation of non-state actors in this region. In doing so, this paper also shows tug-of-war between regional and national interests in the process of formulating regional regime on human rights in ASEAN.

Transnational policy networks in the migration field: a challenge for the European Union

The migration policy field is a multilayered and fragmented area still lacking a strong global and European regime. Nonetheless, different initiatives and fora have been promoted in the last decade to increase the international dialogue on migration, with the active participation of non-state actors, and particularly civil society organisations (CSOs). The article reviews selected initiatives undertaken at the UN and European level, whereby institutional representatives engage with CSOs in furthering migration policies. These initiatives and platforms may constitute transnational policy networks (TPNs). It explores signals towards the consolidation of more structured and ‘hard’ forms of participatory policy-making on migration issues, as well as obstacles present in this engagement dynamic. The key question addressed in this study is whether and how European institutions have engaged with the TPNs in the field of migration. The article also explores how some of the TPNs influence institutional policy-making at the EU level.