UN21 Project

Research Group on "Global Citizenship (Non-State Actors/INGOs)"

A Five-Year Research Plan

Volker Rittberger

Professor of Political Science and International Relations

University of Tubingen, Germany

Within the past years we have witnessed the proliferation of international non-state actors that is unprecedented in history. The emergence of the so called "third sector" of international politics, also referred to as global civil society, and its impact on international politics has led scholars to question traditional state-centric models of the international system and to call for a more comprehensive approach to analyzing international political processes and outcomes. Such an approach is to account for the role of non-state actors, especially INGOs, in global governance. Up to this point, however, the research on international non-state actors is still in its beginnings, focusing mainly on the conditions for the emergence of global private actors, developing typologies of these actors and describing (but not explaining) their activities at the nation-state and the international level. A great problem, which scholars are facing, is the measurement of impact that these non-state actors have on policy making and implementation in a system that - at least formally - is still one of sovereign states. One central goal of the research project on global civil society, therefore, is to find ways to determine the impact of non-state actors in the five different issue areas that will be investigated within the five years of the project's duration and to ask if hypotheses can be developed concerning the current conditions for policy impact or autonomous political action of non-state actors. On this basis, another goal clearly must be to scrutinize the status of different INGOs in the UN system today and to ask if the UN system should be reformed to facilitate a more transparent and effective participation of INGOs as representatives of an emerging global civil society. In the context of these considerations two key issues should be given due attention in the papers commissioned: (1) the potential of INGOs to impart democratic legitimacy to international political processes and (2) the problem of the democratic legitimation of INGOs to act as agents of global civil society.

More specifically, the Research Group on Global Citizenship wants to make a contribution to answering the following core questions:

I. Who are the agents of global civil society?

- What are criteria to classify international non-state actors?

- What types of international non-state actors can be distinguished in the different issue areas? Are there variations in the spectrum of international non-state actors across issue areas?

- Are non-state actors more important in some issue areas than in others? If yes, which issue area specific factors could explain these variations?

II. What role do non-state actors, especially INGOs, play in international politics (and in the UN system, in particular) today (empirical analysis)?

Under this heading, the following questions will be addressed:

- How can the proliferation of INGOs be explained?

- What are the functions of INGOs in the international system (types of activities: operational vs advocacy agencies; do "activity patterns" vary across issue areas)?

- What strategies do INGOs use to gain access to the policy-making process? How do they try to exert influence? Are there issue area specific patterns and differences?

- How successful are INGOs in: a) achieving their operational tasks; b) influencing policy-making processes and outcomes; c) monitoring implementation of international agreements?

- What is the current status of INGOs at the UN (and its specialized agencies)?

III. What roles should non-state actors play in international relations and the UN system of the 21st century (discussion of normative issues and policy recommendations)?

- What are the different approaches concerning INGO participation in the future UN system? How do they address questions of democratization, legitimacy and efficiency?

- How can states and international organizations find better ways of dealing with transnational criminal actors, such as drug cartels, the Mafia and terrorist groups?

The aim of the five year project is to produce an edited volume on the role of non-state actors (especially INGOs) in current international politics and on possible changes in the UN system to facilitate more efficient and transparent participation of INGOs? Three to four papers concerning non-state actors will be commissioned per issue area and year. They will be presented at the UNU project's annual conference.

Our preliminary five year research plan for the analysis of the role of international non-state actors in the five different issue areas of international politics and of the options for their future status within the UN system is outlined below:

Year I (1996): Non-state Actors in the Security Area

* Paper #1: Channels of Influence and Impact of Transnational Epistemic Communities Aiming at Reducing the Risk of a Nuclear War (Pugwash, IPPNW, etc.)

Prof. Emanuel Adler, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

alternatively: Prof. Matthew Evangelista, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

* Paper #2: Security-Endangering Non-State Actors: Transnational Arms-Dealers"

Dr. Michael Brzoska, International Center for Conversion (BICC), Bonn, Germany

* Paper #3: The Endangering of Internal Society by Transnational Criminal Organizations and Networks (Mafia, Drug Cartels, etc.)

Prof. Ethan A. Nadelman, University of California, Berkeley;

alternatively: Prof. Cyrille Fijnaut, University of Leuven, Belgium

* Paper #4: The 'CNN-Effect' on International Security

Prof. Edward Newman

* Paper #5: Transnational Islamic Movements and their Effects on External and Internal Security

Prof. Amin Saikal, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

Proposed Co-Research Organizer for 1996:

Prof. Thomas Risse-Kappen, University of Konstanz, Germany

Year II (1997): Development

- "Linking the Local with the Global:" Transnational Organizational Networks of Development NGOs

- Government, IGO and INGO Cooperation in Development Projects: (I)NGOs as Operational Tools or Autonomous Actors?

- The Relationship of Development (I)NGOs with the UNDP, the World Bank and the IMF (current channels of influence, attempts by INGOs to gain formal access to the policy making process, positions of governments, etc.)

- Complex Humanitarian Emergencies (Somalia, Rwanda): A New Field of Activity for (I)NGOs?

Year III (1998): Environment

- Identifying Conditions of INGO-Impact on International Agenda Setting in Environmental Politics

- The Role of Epistemic Communities in Framing International Environmental Agreements

- UN-World Conferences as Access Points for INGOs to International Policy Making: From Stockholm to Rio

- Environmental INGOs in the UNCED Process: A Model for INGO Participation in Other Issue Areas

Year VI (1999): Human Dignity

- Do INGOs Matter in Human Rights Norm-Setting and Monitoring: The Problem of Measuring INGO Impact

(INGOs as primary actors in the human dignity area?)

- INGOs versus Sovereign States: What is the Power Basis of Human Rights INGOs?

- Universality of Human Rights? The Problem of the Alleged Dominance of Western

Human Rights INGOs

Year V (2000): Governance

- Why Do INGOs Emerge? INGOs as Indicators of the Shortcomings of Global Governance by States and IGOs

- Do INGOs Matter? Measuring the Actual Impact of INGOs on International Institution Building and Institutional Change

- Toward More Formal Participation Rights of INGOs in the UN System: A Discussion of Different Proposals in the Light of Legitimacy, Efficiency and Democratization Concerns

- The "Conscience of the World:" Is There a Civilizing Effect of Non-State Actors in International Relations?

- Transnational Crime as a Competing Second "System of Governance"