Norm Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Net-Zero Norm Entrepreneurship: Principles and Prospects in the U.S.

Net-Zero Norm Entrepreneurship: Principles and Prospects in the U.S.

Norm Entrepreneurship at the UN - Dalits and Communities Discriminated on Work and Descent

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings. However, caste-based discrimination is one of the areas that most human rights mechanisms overlook. As a result of several interventions by Dalit and human rights organisations, the erstwhile United Nations body, in 2000, has termed it ‘discrimination based on work and descent’. The above Dalit and other International organisations have also brought evidence before the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which has endorsed caste-based discrimination as part of the discrimination based on descent, in Article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Further, it was also brought to the notice of various Special Rapporteurs and UN Committees that communities discriminated on work and descent (CDWD) face severe human rights violations and abuses that continue to restrain the socio-economic development of these specific groups of people in several countries globally. Dalit organizations and their solidarity bodies have gone ahead through a process of ‘norm entrepreneurship’ at the UN levels. This article narrates and analyses the challenges and human rights consequences of caste and discrimination based on work and discusses the norm entrepreneurship journey of Dalits and CDWD at the UN level.

Constitutionalising the Right to Water in Kenya and Slovenia: Domestic Drivers, Opportunity Structures, and Transnational Norm Entrepreneurs

The international norm development that in 2010 culminated with the UN Resolution on the Human Right to Water and Sanitation changed international law. To what extent did this influence the parallel legal developments evident in many national constitutions across the globe? This article analyses the mobilisation for a constitutional right to water and sanitation in Kenya and Slovenia, identifying the main national and transnational actors involved and assessing their significance for the processes of constitutionalising the right. By analysing two very different cases, tracing their constitutionalisation processes through analysis of archival material, the article provides multifaceted insights into processes of norm diffusion from international norm entrepreneurs to the national level and the agency of domestic actors and their opportunity structures. We find that although the outcomes of the processes in Kenya and Slovenia are similar in that both constitutions contain articles securing the right to water, the framing of the right differs. Furthermore, we conclude that while there is involvement of international actors in both cases, domestic pro-water activists and their normative and political opportunity structures are more important for understanding the successful constitutionalisation of the right to water and differences in the framing of the right.

Realising the Right of Return: Refugees’ Roles in Localising Norms and Socialising UNHCR

ABSTRACT Refugee repatriation rests on a fundamental norm: the right of return. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) styles itself as the chief defender of international norms on refugees, educating refugees about their rights and socialising states to respect the cardinal rules of the refugee regime. However, UNHCR initially devoted little attention to the right of return. When UNHCR began to engage more actively with repatriation in the 1980s, it had only a nascent institutional conceptualisation of the right of return: it framed the implementation of the right of return as a non-political, humanitarian undertaking, and assumed sovereign states had largely unfettered discretion in its implementation. Drawing on extensive material from the UNHCR archives on repatriation movements from Honduras to El Salvador in the 1980s, this article examines how refugees themselves have influenced the governance of return by serving as norm entrepreneurs, localising the right of return and socialising UNHCR to rethink and support broader interpretations of this principle. It analyzes how Salvadoran refugees envisioned the right of return as a collective and deeply political process of asserting citizenship claims, and took direct action to implement this right, compelling UNHCR and government actors to adjust to their vision. These experiences have important implications for understandings of the right of return as an international norm, and the roles of refugees themselves as actors in norm localisation and socialisation processes. Reinforcing and expanding on recent studies of how refugees actively shape aid efforts, peacebuilding and the resolution of displacement, this study highlights the significance of subaltern power in the refugee regime, showing how it can reverberate across different sites and scales to definitively influence not only the execution of the regime’s core functions but also the interpretation of the normative commitments underpinning it.

The paradox of success: Evolutionary dynamics between human rights and small arms

This article shows how increasingly converging human rights and humanitarian discourses, accompanied by existing structural asymmetries, can reconstitute rights and obligations within a prominent weapons category: small arms and light weapons (SALWs). Its contribution is to theoretically refine and apply a power-analytical approach to the convergence of humanitarian, human rights, and weapons law and, in particular, the nexus between human rights and SALWs. We focus on the dynamics leading to the adoption of two major agreements very different in nature: the UN Programme of Action and the Arms Trade Treaty. Charting multiple, intermeshing, and often contradictory operations of power, we analyze the shifting role of human rights and the emergence of an entirely new phenomenon: human rights-centered arms control. Attention is drawn to the underlying paradox: Although the norm of human rights has risen from obscurity to prominence in arms control, the arms industry has been given stronger political and legal protection. Although policy advocates and norm entrepreneurs have usually preferred complete humanitarian disarmament, what we can abstract from this analysis is that a less ambitious, human rights-centered weapons treaty may well be the preferred model of arms control for a commercially prominent, widely circulated, and often-used category of weapons defying stigmatization. What follows are concluding remarks and a graphic synthesis of key findings (Figure 1).

Emerging illiberal norms: Russia and China as promoters of internet content control

Abstract This article contributes to the understanding of authoritarian states as norm entrepreneurs of content control norms. These emerging norms challenge the norm literature, which disregards illiberal norms and illiberal actors as norm entrepreneurs. This article focuses on two distinct but coexisting strategies that Russia and China apply for promoting and developing internet governance norms. It shows that these countries use a combination of socialization and persuasion strategies. They employ a sequencing strategy of regional coalition-building in order to create support, after which they expand a norm's range via international organizations. These norm entrepreneurs adapt their strategies to different target groups based on the degree of internalization of the norm. The article shows that a reassessment of norm theory in a broader context allows for extension to illiberal norms and illiberal actors, but also shows the limits since the applicability of strategies such as naming and shaming should be questioned.

Power and Diplomacy in the United Nations Security Council: The Influence of Elected Members

ABSTRACT The cases of Poland’s 2018-2019 and South Africa’s 2019-2020 terms as elected members (E10) of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) can be used to confront the well-known claim that due to a prevailing democratic, legitimacy or efficiency deficit(s) in the structure and/or working methods of the Council, there is no significant space for the E10 members to be influential. By examining these two representative cases, the E10’s capacity to exert such influence can indeed be detected on multiple levels, which highlights the numerous channels and practices available to the elected members to act as veritable norm entrepreneurs at this most prominent institution of global governance.

Note from the Editor

Note from the Editor

How Peace Operations Did Not Emerge as a Norm after the First World War

The execution of international plebiscites and international administrations in post-World War I Germany was chosen as a case study because it is accepted as an early model of peace operations. It held promise for the emergence of a new norm for resolving territorial disputes according to the principle of self-determination. In order to understand why the norm failed in its early emergence stage process, the paper analyzes the discussions on Germany territorial disputes among the three main Powers − France, Great-Britain and the United States − during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as the constitutive stage. Then it compares it with the execution of international operations in Germany. The paper combines IR theory with international history. It shows that a ‘norm amalgamation’ is a precondition for a norm to emerge. The norm entrepreneurs have to amalgamate an ideational-constitutive process with an operational-appropriateness. In the case studies it shows that during the discussions of the victorious Powers there were several tensions and dilemmas: a tension between the ‘old norm’ and ‘new norms’. Moreover, The Powers were also divided concerning the process of operational-procedures.

Norm Entrepreneurship in Global Cybersecurity

New technologies create new challenges for global security that leave even the most militarily powerful countries vulnerable to attack. Countries are gearing up for electronic warfare and, in this realm, the old rules of international conflict either do not apply or have not been developed. Governments have yet to find stable policy solutions to match potential cyber threats. The challenge then is to establish new global norms concerning acceptable behavior in cyberspace. This article analyzes the attempts to construct global cybersecurity norms. It differs from much of the existing literature on norm‐construction since it moves beyond the interstate level to examine subnational groups and private sector actors that function as norm entrepreneurs in this policy area. The article posits that while nation states remain central, nonstate actors are playing an increasingly important role in cybersecurity norm‐building, supplementing state action, and, to some degree, compensating for state inaction when cooperation reaches an impasse.Related ArticlesGlen, Carol M. 2014. “Internet Governance: Territorializing Cyberspace?” Politics & Policy 42 (5): 635‐657. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12093Hellmeier, Sebastian. 2016. “The Dictator's Digital Toolkit: Explaining Variation in Internet Filtering in Authoritarian Regimes.” Politics & Policy 44 (6): 1158‐1191. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12189Zeng, 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): 432‐464. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12202

The ‘China’ Question in Mobile Internet Standard-Making: Insights From Expert Interviews

This article explores the actions of Chinese stakeholders as norm entrepreneurs in mobile Internet standard-making within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Through semi-structured interviews with key experts from the Internet stakeholder communities, this article contextualises a rapidly transforming and increasingly politicised issue in the broader context of China’s engagement with the global multistakeholder Internet governance architecture, as well as the debate on China’s rise in the Liberal International Order. Furthermore, it incorporates the views and experiences of technologists working first-hand in standard-making, as they are often disregarded in political-scientific literature. Through the analytical lens of cognitivist regime theory, this article argues that the stronger China and Chinese stakeholders grow economically and politically, the more they become involved in the existing Internet governance regime complex, increasing their influence in the existing institutional arrangements without necessarily acting for changing their norms, rules, and principles. Through these theoretical and methodological approaches, new light is shed on the role of private and public Chinese stakeholders and on the relation between them.

Young Activists as International Norm Entrepreneurs: A Case Study of Greta Thunberg’s Campaigning on Climate Change in Europe and Beyond

The role and significance of young activists in the process of international norm creation, diffusion, internalisation, and implementation have not received much attention in academic research. Yet, as a case study of Greta Thunberg campaigning on climate change has proven, children and teenagers can become significant norm entrepreneurs. Using the theoretical underpinnings of social constructivism, this article identifies and analyses Thunberg’s actions to exhort pressure on states, members of governments and international organisations to further develop and implement norms that would help save the planet from the imminent climate crisis. Our research uses an exploratory and inductive approach in which qualitative research methods (a case study of Greta Thunberg) and discourse analysis are applied.

The Creation of Branded Content Teams in Spanish News Organizations and Their Implications for Structures, Professional Roles and Ethics

Over the last decade, top media organizations have restructured their newsrooms and created branded content teams, or studios, devoted entirely to the production of new native advertising formats in order to leverage this business opportunity. The goal of this exploratory study is to analyse how news organizations in Spain implement this strategy and create branded content teams, changing the structure of their newsrooms and shaping the practices and roles of the editors and journalists involved. Semi-structured interviews with professionals (n = 11) who work at news outlets (n = 8) were carried out in order to explain their structural, professional and ethical challenges. The results show that branded content teams can be classified into three organizational models (integrated, autonomous and emerging) and they are usually formed by hybrid professionals, linking commercial, editorial and design practices. The study participants justify the new practice adopting the role of norm entrepreneurs. Despite the warnings and risks, the interviewees asserted that by inserting an appropriate disclaimer in these new formats, credibility and transparency are not endangered. They also believe that sponsored content will become a fundamental pillar for the business models of their news organizations.

What is civil society and who represents civil society at the IGF? An analysis of civil society typologies in internet governance

For 15 years, the UN-mandated Internet Governance Forum (IGF) has brought different stakeholder groups together to engage in debate and discussion on public policy issues relevant to Internet Governance, but who are the ‘civil society’ that is treated as one of the cornerstones of the IGF? This paper aims to provide two contributions to discussions on norm entrepreneurship in internet governance. First, it aims to contribute to the growing body of literature on multistakeholderism, notably by furthering debates on the role of civil society in institutions of global governance (in this instance, the IGF). Second, we aim to contribute to the debates on the future of the IGF(+), by digging into the civil society stakeholder group to try to understand who is actually present in the discussions. By creating a typology of the 2830 Civil Society Organisations that have participated in IGFs between 2006 and 2019, we provide nuance to the heterogeneity of civil society in Internet Governance debates. This exploratory study has shown that there is a hidden wealth available in the statistics of the IGF that can inform our policymaking capacity in terms of topics, representation but also providing access and ensuring outreach to specific communities.

Urbanising norms? Cities as local amplifiers in global norm dynamics on HIV/AIDS policies

Despite the growing activities of cities in world politics, and the importance of local actors in norm research, little has been done to assess the contribution of cities to global norm dynamics. Drawing on the normatively contested field of global HIV/AIDS policies, we show how cities differ from other local actors usually discussed in norm research. Instead of adapting, contesting or even rejecting global norms, cities amplify them. Amplification is a local reaction to global norm dynamics that resembles a combination of norm implementation and norm entrepreneurship. To show this urban engagement with norms in detail, we first link the existing strands of city research and norm research in IR. Second, we present the global norm dynamics related to HIV/AIDS policies as a normative context for city activities. Third, we scrutinise cities’ contribution to norm dynamics by analysing their networking and dissemination activities within and beyond city borders. As a result, we find that cities support global norm dynamics and amplify global norms even against a very different local and national background. These results have important implications for current norm research that has so far neither examined cities in detail, nor conceptualised local actors as amplifiers of global norms.

The ‘China’ question in mobile Internet standard-making: Insights from expert interviews

This article explores the actions of Chinese stakeholders as norm entrepreneurs in mobile Internet standard-making within the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). Through semi-structured interviews with key experts from the Internet stakeholder communities, this article contextualises a rapidly transforming and increasingly politicised issue in the broader context of China's engagement with the global multistakeholder Internet governance architecture, as well as the debate on China's rise in the Liberal International Order. Furthermore, it incorporates the views and experiences of technologists working first-hand in standard-making, as they are often disregarded in political-scientific literature. Through the analytical lens of cognitivist regime theory, this article argues that the stronger China and Chinese stakeholders grow economically and politically, the more they become involved in the existing Internet governance regime complex, increasing their influence in the existing institutional arrangements without necessarily acting for changing their norms, rules, and principles. Through these theoretical and methodological approaches, new light is shed on the role of private and public Chinese stakeholders and on the relation between them.

Normfare: Norm entrepreneurship in internet governance

This special issue is the first to systematically address the activity we call “normfare” - the assiduous development of norms of very different character (public and private, formal and informal, technically mediated and directly implemented) by different actors (platforms, standard-setters, states) as an answer to the wide range of challenges facing internet governance. We bring together contributions from leading anthropologists, technologists, political scientists, legal and communication scholars exploring how norms underpin the new ordering of the internet, whether in explicit or implicit forms. Through various theoretical lenses, contributions analyze the impact of platforms, states, civil society, expert groups and key individuals on restructuring the normative order of the internet, and present empirical evidence for instances of norm creation, legitimation, contestation and opposition. Valuable new insights for norm development processes come from case studies, ethnographies, legal and discourse analysis and interdisciplinary approaches locating agency and power plays. In this introduction, we define the key concepts applicable to norm entrepreneurship and discuss their interplay in internet governance debates, followed by an overview of the articles included in the special issue. In the final section, we reflect on the implications of our new research agenda.

Why international law and norms do little in preventing non-state cyber attacks

Abstract In this article, I investigate why international law and norms have failed to keep cyberspace peaceful. The problem comes mainly from their failure to address what non-state actors, such as individual hackers and technology firms, do in cyberspace. Created by the extensive input of government officials decades ago with heavy focus on states as primary actors of international politics, international law is incoherent with the dominance of non-state actors as de facto operators of cyberspace. The critical problem shared by international law and institutions of having no “teeth” to penalize non-state violence extends to cyberspace. As a result, noncompliance with international law has become practical, and it has even bolstered the private sector, especially major technology firms, to assert themselves in the legal void, leverage their digital products to reshape norms, and become norm entrepreneurs in the business of digital defense. However, the multiplication of norm entrepreneurs has accelerated in an uncoordinated manner, and the way they built their interests does not neatly align with those of the states. While some norms of cyberspace behavior have been accepted, many others remain contested. In the meantime, norm discourse in diplomatic venues, including in multilateral debates at the United Nations, has become highly undemocratic, dominated by a small mix of great powers and active middle powers that are also split over what norms should guide state and nonstate behaviors.

The Anti-Mercenary Norm and United Nations’ Use of Private Military and Security Companies: From Norm Entrepreneurship to Organized Hypocrisy

ABSTRACT A prominent anti-mercenary norm entrepreneur in the second half of the twentieth century, the United Nations (UN) has become an equally prominent user of Private Military and Security Companies (PMSCs) services in the twenty-first century. In this article, we explain the gap between UN talk and action on private providers of security as a form of organized hypocrisy. To map the mismatch between UN rhetoric and behaviour in a measurable fashion, we combined official data on the use of PMSCs with an in-depth content analysis of the reports written by the UN Working Group on Mercenaries and an examination of the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) contracting policy. The Working Group’s very negative portrayal of PMSCs and the UNDSS caveat that armed contractors should only be used as a last resort and stands in stark contrast with UN agencies’ widespread use of private security providers. Although a decoupling between talk and action is often inevitable for complex organizations simultaneously pursuing contradictory objectives like the UN, our findings have important implications for peacekeeping. Most notably, organized hypocrisy is in danger of challenging the UN’s credibility as a norm entrepreneur, hindering the effectiveness of its agencies’ outsourcing practices and delaying the reform of UN peacekeeping and crisis management at large.

Hungary as a Norm Entrepreneur in Migration Policy

This paper analyses Hungary as a small state within the EU and the policy it applied during the refugee crisis of 2015/2016 that changed the landscape both on the European and Hungarian level. During the crisis, Hungary acted as a small, interest-maximizing Member State constrained by domestic political interests and it did not only refuse to participate in common European policy proposals to solve the crisis, but it also engaged in unilateral actions perceived as solutions, such as erecting a border wall on the Southern border of Hungary. This paper examines how Hungary acted during the refugee crisis with the help of small state theories. Presenting the events, legislative changes and discourses surrounding migration policy in the past years will show that Hungary managed to take advantage of the refugee crisis by acting as a norm entrepreneur which gave the Prime Minister the opportunity to articulate his own views and convictions about the right way to solve the crisis and also about the future of the EU as a whole. Many EU Member States joined Hungary in its migration strategy and so it became the leading country of the anti-immigration block in Europe.