Norm Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Catching up with AI: Pushing toward a cohesive governance framework

AbstractArtificial Intelligence (AI) contributes to public administration by augmenting public services, including managing big data and information technology. AI is currently utilized in e‐government services that contribute value to American citizens, including providing a personalized customer experience, such as linking individualized data and processing individual assistance requests. Furthermore, AI can take over redundant routine tasks such as digital information provisioning and delivering services. However, in the United States, there is no overarching policy that governs AI. Inconsistent public policy contributes to public distrust of AI, concerns about privacy intrusion, and fears of inequitable service delivery. This review article discusses the rapid emergence of government applications of AI and provides a systematic review of proposed AI governance models. It then outlines their common components for the purpose of building a coherent, yet adaptable, AI Governance Framework and proposes a research agenda for policy and administration researchers.Related ArticlesGlen, Carol M. 2014. “Internet Governance: Territorializing Cyberspace?” Politics & Policy 42(5): 635–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12093.Glen, Carol M. 2021. “Norm Entrepreneurship in Global Cybersecurity.” Politics & Policy 49(5): 1121–45. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12430.Zeng, Jinghan, Tim Stevens, and Yaru Chen. 2017. “China's Solution to Global Cyber Governance: Unpacking the Domestic Discourse of ‘Internet Sovereignty.’” Politics & Policy 45(3): 432–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12202.

Knowledge, power and the failure of US peacemaking in Afghanistan 2018–21

Abstract The power of narrative and norm entrepreneurship in shaping policy and practice is increasingly appreciated in the study of international relations but rarely investigated in the context of international peacemaking and mediation. Applying constructivist analyses and drawing on empirical evidence from US diplomacy in Afghanistan between 2018 and 2021, this article demonstrates how emergent western policy discourses, knowledge production, and the mediator's ideas and practices interacted in a dynamic context to induce a significant shift in US policy, legitimate it, and fundamentally reshape the conflict and peacemaking landscape. Approaching the reality of conflict and peacemaking as socially constructed and drawing on documentary analysis, in-depth interviews and insights from first-hand participation in the Afghan ‘peace’ process, I argue that these new narratives influenced and sanctioned a coercive US peacemaking approach that reshaped the interests and behaviors of Afghan stakeholders, with violent material consequences on the ground. In doing so, the article highlights the potential of constructivist analyses of peacemaking to provide a more holistic, multi-dimensional understanding of these processes and their outcomes in ways that purely rationalist or structurally-based accounts can not.

IS THERE A TEMPLATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM? – A STUDY OF UGANDAN LGBT+ ORGANIZATIONS’ DIGITAL SPACES

Albeit criminalization against same-sex desires is a remnant of the British colonialization, the 2009 Anti-homosexuality Bill, catapulted Ugandan state-sponsored homophobia into the international spotlight. The ensuing battle over the Bill between on one hand, local and international human rights defenders including Northern development partners and transnational conservative and religious norm entrepreneurs in partnership with local religious and political elites, on the other; highlighted that domestic identity and sexual politics are no longer local affairs. Through a qualitative directed content analysis, the study explore to what degree six established Ugandan LGBT+ organizations engage with international norm entrepreneurs’ attempts to influence Ugandan social mores on non-heteronormative sexuality and non-conforming gender identities, in their self-controlled digital spaces - websites and Facebook- during January 2022. With few exceptions, digital spaces displayed a conspicuous uniform human rights advocacy rhetoric, where same-sex desires and gender identities are presented in essentialist terms as in LGBT+ and universal sexual rights, as opposed to sexual desires and gender identities as embedded and realized in a unique social contexts, that at least in the Ugandan context historically has include significant pluralism and multi-positionality. LGBT+ organizations’ did not discuss the impact of waves of international norm entrepreneurs’ attempts to define and influence the struggle for equal rights, and subsequent potential re-colonialization of Ugandan understandings of sexual desires outside the heteronormative model and non-conforming gender identities. The level of rhetorical uniformity could suggests the existence of a latent template for activism, which could be an unintended consequence of dependency on international funding.

Vaccine politics: Law and inequality in the pandemic response to COVID‐19

AbstractInternational mechanisms failed to achieve equitable distribution of COVID‐19 vaccines—prolonging and deepening the pandemic. To understand why, we conduct process tracing of the first year of international policymaking on vaccine equity. We find that, in the absence of a single venue for global negotiation, two competing law and policy paradigms emerged. One focused on demand and voluntary action by states and firms, while the alternative focused on opening knowledge and expanding production through national and international law. While these could have been complementary, power inequalities between key actors kept the second paradigm from gaining traction on the global agenda. The failure of the prevailing policy paradigm to secure equity is explained, not by unforeseen technical and financing challenges as some suggest, but by a fundamental misalignment with the political environment. While norm entrepreneurs encouraged sharing, political incentives pushed governments towards securing and hoarding doses. Firms responded to the latter. Mechanisms like COVAX proved incapable of countering these predictable international and domestic political forces. Earlier funding would not likely have changed the behaviour of states or firms in the absence of legal commitment. Barring significant geopolitical changes, a shift to include open/supply‐focused policies will be necessary to achieve equity in future pandemics.

Combatting sectarianism from the ground up: The Northern Irish Green and White Army and the football carnival

This paper draws upon participant observation data conducted before and after all 10 qualifying matches for the 2016 UEFA European Football Championship to explore the dynamics underpinning the Northern Irish Green and White Army (GAWA) football carnival. Supplemented by interviews with Northern Ireland fans themselves and informed by the dramaturgical perspectives of Erving Goffman, the paper contends that the anti-sectarian ‘norms’ of GAWA football fandom are dominant in public spaces before matches when the GAWA ‘performance team’ are visible to one another and their audience within a geographically circumscribed space. In a post-match evening context however, various ‘cliques’ of supporters enact their own social rules within a ‘back-stage’ environment of more relaxed peer-to-peer surveillance. These at times transgress the established norms of GAWA fan behaviour. The paper acknowledges that inappropriate supporter behaviour, even within small groups, can damage the wider image of football teams and their supporters in ‘impression management’ terms. But rather than imposing top-down ‘solutions’ which are often devised with limited input from supporters, we suggest that football governing bodies, associations and clubs should look to work in partnership with supporters to identify creative ways in which supporters can be resourced to proactively become ‘norm entrepreneurs’ and challenge inappropriate behaviour from within.

The European Union’s ‘never again’ Arctic narrative

ABSTRACT Over the past few decades, the European Union has presented itself on the world stage as a norm entrepreneur and global maritime power. However, this claim to power is belied by its recent experience of a surge in crises – both of domestic and international origin. Nonetheless, the EU’s 2021 update to its Arctic Policy noted that, due to the Union’s strategic Arctic interests, full engagement in Arctic matters is a geopolitical necessity for the EU. Given the augmented attention on the Arctic region for climate, economic and, increasingly, for security reasons, this is not surprising. However, it does beg the question of how the EU intends to involve itself more thoroughly in Arctic affairs. This article seeks to explore the extent to which the Union’s foundational narrative of ‘never again’ regarding conflict and war can explain EU actions in the Arctic, the EU as a peaceful maritime power and its broader approach to ocean governance, particularly in the Circumpolar North.

A ‘Uniform’ for All States?

A ‘Uniform’ for All States?

Environmental reporting quality in Japan: discussing normativity, quasi-mandatory approach and norm entrepreneurship

PurposeJapan applies a quasi-mandatory approach to corporate environmental reporting by defining the desired norm through formal law and guidelines and pushing large companies to be role models regardless of their sensitivity to environmental impacts. This study aims to analyze the change in Japanese companies reporting quality to justify this approach’s capability to produce normativity of environmental reporting.Design/methodology/approachThis study examines the change in corporate environmental reporting quality and the effect of company characteristics on it. The analysis focuses on 88 companies for 2008, 2013 and 2018, resulting in 264 company-year observations.FindingsThe result shows a continuous upward trend, although it is unsatisfactory regarding the comparability and free from error characteristics. Then, company size positively affects the quality, and sensitivity to environmental impacts does not. Overall, the findings indicate that Japan is moving toward normativity through the quasi-mandatory approach and the norm entrepreneurship of its large companies, regardless of their sensitivity to environmental impacts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study could relieve the belief that it is necessary to apply a mandatory approach to improve reporting quality and enrich views on the effect of company characteristics which mainly used only the legitimacy perspective.Originality/valueThis study proposes a more comprehensive measure of environmental reporting quality. The measure is based on the qualitative characteristics of useful information from the most influential accounting standard-setting bodies. In addition, the effect of company characteristics on the quality is explained based on the norm entrepreneurship view instead of the legitimacy perspective.

Internal Dynamics as Drivers of Change in International Organizations: The Economists’ Takeover at the World Bank

AbstractUsing the largely untapped episode of the reconstruction of the World Bank’s Economics Department in the mid-1960s, this article aims to augment our theoretical and empirical understanding of intra-organizational change in international organizations (IOs). By analyzing the instruments and mechanisms of dynamic staff agency, it highlights the capacity of norm entrepreneurs, professional groups, and internal administrative units to shape activities and initiate a change of IOs. The article makes a case for a more dynamic constructivist approach to the study of IOs and their ecosystems.

Trumpism and the rejection of global climate governance

This paper explains the ideational foundations of Donald Trump’s rejection of global climate cooperation and its implications for the future of global climate governance. We argue that Trumpism’s antipathy is a fundamental normative challenge to the key ideas that underpin global climate cooperation. Here we explore two specific norm contestations: (1) Collective action versus extralegal sovereignty, and (2) Common but Differentiated Responsibility versus fairness-as-reciprocity. Trump’s aggressive norm rejections are quite novel. His rejection of climate politics in particular and his desire to return to a status quo ante in world politics, positions him as a distinct type of actor in the spectrum of norm contestation – a reactionary norm entrepreneur. We contribute an ideational explanation of Trumpism’s rejection of global climate cooperation by identifying the fundamental clash of ideas and his role as a reactionary norm entrepreneur within the broader framework of global climate governance. It offers a case study in a high-profile instance of norm contestation and its implications for the survival of the global climate change regime.

THE AFRICAN UNION AS COLLECTIVE NORM ENTREPRENEUR IN STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENTS OF EXTERNAL POWERS AND AFRICA

Since 2000, both emerging powers like China and India and established powers like the EU and the US were voraciously seeking close relations with Africa, and the African Union was playing a coordinating role in managing the ensuing relationships. However, the role of the AU as a collective African norm entrepreneur has not been recognized due to the theoretical limitations imposed by the mainstream theories of IR. This study used ‘Subsidiarity Norm Theory’ to find out collective African agency in the progressively evolving relations using data collected from treaties, policy statements, press releases, other relevant documents, and policy actions. This study found that the AU was emerging as the premier norm entrepreneur in international politics of Africa despite the difficult challenges posed by factors such as limited organizational capacity, the opportunistic actions of some of its members, and interventions by external powers that encroach on its coordinating role. Actions of the AU and consequent intersubjectively evolving relations with emerging powers like China also reveal that the AU was both responding to emerging powers' policy initiatives and constituting the terms of the engagements.

Whose media freedom is being defended? Norm contestation in international media freedom campaigns

AbstractThis article analyses how international advocacy campaigns approach and define media freedom, and what influences this process. It does this through a two-year case study of the Media Freedom Coalition—an intergovernmental partnership of over 50 countries—that included 55 interviews with key stakeholders, observations, and document analysis. This revelatory case sheds light on how norms of media freedom are constructed and contested on the international stage, and their implications for journalists, media freedom and geo-politics. We show that the Coalition adopted a state-centric, accountability-focused, and negative understanding of media freedom. This discourse legitimized a narrow, reactive, and “resource-light” approach to supporting media freedom, focused on “other” countries. We argue that critical norm research provides a helpful prism for understanding this Coalition’s operations, and the global politics of media freedom more generally. These findings have important implications for understandings of “norm entrepreneurship,” “media imperialism,” and “media freedom” itself.

Foreign Norm Entrepreneurs’ Misinformation and Disinformation Narratives on LGBT+ Rights in Europe

With ample evidence that foreign state actors and non-state norm entrepreneurs are engaged in misinformation and disinformation campaigns challenging the European Union’s human rights framework on LGBT+, this study analyses the narratives that these actors disseminate. Based on two methods – a standard literature review of academic and “grey” literature, as well as complementary analysis of entries in the EUvsDisinfo database – the study identifies four main narratives that can be attributed to or are actively sponsored by non-European actors: 1) Opposing gender ideology and protecting God’s order, 2) Heteroactivism and the protection of the rights of the “natural” family, 3) LGBT+ rights as Western colonialism, and 4) LGBT+ rights as a threat to the rights of children. Even though EU’s strong protection of freedom of speech makes it challenging to address misinformation and disinformation that falls outside hate-speech legislation, this paper argues that exploring the following counter measures could be worthwhile: 1) harmonization of European legal frameworks, 2) financial scrutiny and 3) strengthened automatic detection, editorial policies, and community flagging, as well as the capacity to systematically deal with misinformation and disinformation campaign targeting LGBT+ across digital spaces in Europe.

Blinded by Delight?

Abstract International Relations (ir) norm studies have long been stuck to a narrow understanding of the concept of norm entrepreneurship, limiting it to actors from the Global North and their efforts to spread western norms. Building on recent studies that focus on non-western or ‘authoritarian’ norm entrepreneurs, this paper highlights the limitations of academic discourse itself, which seems to be wedded to a particular notion of what ‘ideational commitment’ means and from whom it must emanate. Such a prefabricated understanding risks lauding some forms of norm entrepreneurship as ‘genuine’, while dismissing other cases as strategically motivated. Instead, the paper argues for ‘de-moralising’ the concept. Decoupling it from normative biases does not only reveal the full repertoire of norm entrepreneurial action (from cooperative to confrontational). It also shifts attention to contestation as modus vivendi of norm entrepreneurship, and to the political nature of norm dynamics.

Norm Entrepreneurship with Chinese Characteristics? Constructing a ‘Green bri’

Abstract Although illiberal normative projects have become increasingly prominent internationally, ir norms research has, for a long time, focused mainly on liberal norm entrepreneurs. Through the study of the environmental norms promoted by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (bri), the so-called ‘green bri’, this contribution seeks to add to the empirical horizon of norm entrepreneurship. Drawing on insights from area studies and authoritarian regime studies, I argue that based on its domestic political system, China engages in a specific pattern of norm promotion. By shedding light on the development of ‘Green bri’ norms, I argue that these efforts are shaped by China’s internal political practice in two ways: They are informed by ‘slogan politics’, vague formulations issued by high-level figures that are filled with life and interpreted subsequently, and they highlight the agency of the Chinese state while allowing large degrees of flexibility for state-owned enterprises and their economic interests.

Norm Entrepreneurs in Human Rights Campaign: The Study of KontraS and Imparsial

Civil society organisations or CSOs are unique compared to other groups. They help advocate the society by mentoring, raising public awareness, and campaigning values to improve the quality of understanding the public issues. By analyzing the rejection of the death penalty, this study examines the role of KontraS and Imparsial as norm entrepreneurs in human rights campaigns. Both view the death penalty as incompatible with the universal human rights norm, and the government should comprehensively pay greater attention to this issue. With this belief as a rationale, KontraS and Imparsial are motivated to promote the rejection of the penalty as depicted in their campaigns. The two organizations conduct malicious actions like criticism, demonstration, and collaborative strategies such as research, education, and community empowerment in human rights campaigns. This paper is qualitative research using an intensive literature review combined with in-depth interviews. The findings revealed that both succeeded in overspreading counter norms to create political debates regarding death punishment. However, due to the coalition’s socio-political dynamics and internal factors, KontraS and Imparsial failed to influence the actors and state policies to abolish the capital penalty.

Reframing the climate debate: The origins and diffusion of net zero pledges

AbstractAchieving net zero emissions has rapidly become the dominant long‐term objective guiding national climate policies. At the end of 2018, only 24 countries were considering or had adopted long‐term net zero targets. By the end of 2021, this had climbed to almost 150 countries, covering 89 per cent of global carbon emissions. In this article, we trace the origins and diffusion of net zero pledges through the lens of international norm theory. Drawing on a newly compiled database of national net zero targets, our analysis highlights the critical role played by climate scientists, transnational advocacy networks, and norm entrepreneurs in articulating the norm of net zero emissions. The IPCC's fifth assessment report was foundational, by introducing the concept of a cumulative carbon budget, allowing translation of abstract temperature goals into more actionable net zero targets. The norm of net zero has been institutionalised at the global political level in the period 2015–2018 and cascaded through the international system in 2019–2020. Yet, it remains subject to various forms of contestation, most notably regarding validity, fairness, scope, and implementation. The norm is now at a critical stage in its lifecycle that will decide whether it gets institutionalised or suffers backsliding and even erosion.

Russia as a Norm Entrepreneur: Crimea and Humanitarian Intervention

ABSTRACT Since 1991, Russia has attempted to maintain its hegemonic role in the region. Although it has primarily relied on military and economic means, Russia’s actions have also been accompanied by a normative agenda. Using the Crimean intervention, we outline the basic features of this agenda. Russia maintained that its actions were guided by humanitarian concerns, which was widely rejected as disingenuous. We contend that Russia used the humanitarian frame to circulate a regional alternative to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, a zombie norm it revived from the past to shape the rules of international conduct in its immediate neighborhood.

From Age to Agency: Frame Adoption and Diffusion Concerning the International Human Rights Norm Against Child, Early, and Forced Marriage

The way many human rights advocates frame the international norm against child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM) has shifted in the past decade. While CEFM has historically been framed as driven by poverty and underdevelopment, advocates have more recently discussed the problem with a feminist sexuality frame. What leads advocates to change their framing about an international norm? We build an argument that stresses how (a) the nature of the frame, (b) the characteristics of the advocates, and (c) the characteristics of the discursive environment interact to determine whether and to what extent advocates will adopt an alternative frame. We use a multi-methods approach (machine-learning text analysis, process tracing, and interviews) to examine the process of frame adoption around an international norm. Our theoretical understanding of international norms requires a better grasp on the role of framing, especially framing among the very norm entrepreneurs that are critical to international norm diffusion.

BRICS member states as norm entrepreneurs: worldviews and bids for power in global health and world energy governance

The international agenda has become a key area due to the diversity of topics negotiated at the international level and the fact that emerging countries question the global distribution of power. In this context, the international agenda can be characterised as a result of bids for power. This article focuses on Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS member states) as emerging powers that have demanded to change some rules and put on the table new meanings for crucial topics as norm entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, during the second decade of this century, Brazil and South Africa have withdrawn from the international scene, while India, Russia and China (mainly Beijing) have intensified their presence. This paper aims to analyse the achievements and limitations faced by each of these emerging countries as norm entrepreneurs, particularly regarding global health and world energy governance. It follows an interpretive research methodology and its purpose is to contribute to the debate on systemic changes and the role of emerging powers in the norm entrepreneur literature.