Transnational Actors

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Thiel ◽  
Jeffrey Maslanik
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Key Word ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
State Boundaries ◽  
Scholarly Attention

“Transnational” is a frequently mentioned key word in international relations today; it is used to denote in a simplifying manner an organization working beyond state boundaries and acting independently from traditional state authorities. The scholarly recognition of such actors occurred relatively late in the field and advanced with the acceleration of globalizing economic, political, cultural, and social processes. Despite the appearance of transnational actors as a topical and palpable concern for academics and practitioners alike, questions of conceptual vagueness and relational indeterminacy remain, and the continual proliferation of these entities lend urgency to the need for more scholarly attention to these agents.

On the health of International Relations and the international relations of health

1989 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Thomas
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
International Borders ◽  
State Boundaries

Disease is a transnational phenomenon which pays no heed to territorial state boundaries; yet it rarely features in the discussion of International Relations. It is important that the discipline should address the issue of disease and more broadly, health, not simply to facilitate containment of disease transmission across international borders but also because central notions of justice, equity, efficiency and order are involved.

scholarly journals COVID-19 and the Politics of Crisis

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Phillip Y. Lipscy
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Security ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Violent Conflict ◽  
Careful Examination ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Relative Neglect ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic presents an opportunity to refocus scholarly attention on the politics of crisis. Crises that abruptly upend political and economic relations are important and increasing in frequency. However, the division of international relations into international political economy (IPE) and international security has contributed to the relative neglect of non-militarized crises like pandemics. Crises are defined by threat, uncertainty, and time pressure: understanding them requires a careful examination of how these variables affect political and economic outcomes. Drawing on often disparate literatures on finance, energy and climate change, natural disasters, pandemics, and violent conflict, I propose a broad research program around the politics of crisis, focusing on puzzles related to causes, responses, and transformations.

Self-proclaimed diplomats: Catalan-Lithuanian cooperation during WWI

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 340-356
Author(s):  
Joan Esculies ◽  
Vytautas Petronis
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
World War ◽  
National Movements ◽  
International Diplomacy ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The topic of international cooperation between national movements before the end of World War I (WWI) has still not received sufficient scholarly attention. It is common for national historiographies to concentrate on the case of their own nation. When it comes to international relations, however, connections with neighboring nations and national movements - chief adversaries in the achievement of national goals - are usually prioritized. Nevertheless, even before and especially during the war there was a vibrant scene where non-dominant nationalities could practice international diplomacy, conduct discussions, share experiences, build coalitions, and so on. This article explores one of such examples of international relations conducted between the representatives of two nations - the Catalans and the Lithuanians. They came in contact before the war at the Paris-basedUnion des Nationalités(the Union of Nationalities), an organization that was designed to unite and support non-dominant national movements. Despite being located on the opposite sides of Europe and having no apparent direct connections, the Lithuanians and the Catalans established common ground for cooperation, which especially peaked during WWI.

International Organizations and Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diana Panke ◽  
Ingo Henneberg
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Policy Decision ◽  
Policy Outcomes ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Policy Decision Making ◽  
Scholarly Attention

The interplay between states and international organizations has received a lot of scholarly attention, largely because the number of international organizations has increased considerably within the last century. State-of-the-art scholarship on the foreign policies of international organizations and states is presented here, as are rationalist and constructivist accounts of how the foreign policies of states impact international organizations (bottom-up perspective), as well as how, in turn, international organizations impact member-state foreign policies (top-down perspective). Thereby, the polity, politics, and policy dimensions of both states and international organizations are examined in order to explain the changes states’ foreign policies can induce, under what scope conditions, in the international organizations’ structure (polity), procedures (politics), and policy outcomes. Vice versa, also explained are the changes international organizations can induce, under what scope conditions, in the foreign policy apparatus of states (polity), foreign policy decision-making procedures (politics), and states’ foreign policies. As is illustrated, the theme “International Organizations and Foreign Policy” is not an established foreign policy subfield per se but is covered here in multiple approaches and theories. In line with the development of international relations, the bottom-up perspective has received much more scholarly attention than the top-down perspective. Furthermore, bottom-up research evidences a tendency toward the strong influence of states’ foreign policies on the policy and polity of international organizations, while the top-down influence of international organizations on states’ foreign policy apparatus, procedures, and policies is usually much more limited. Finally, an outlook into fruitful future avenues for research is outlined.

Religion, Nationalism, and Transnational Actors

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Haynes
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
International Order ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Religious Influence ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Religious Actors

A proper understanding of the development of nationalism should incorporate the direct and indirect influences of religion. To focus on the current international order is to note that various aspects of international conflict have significantly changed in recent years, with frequent involvement of religious, ethnic, and cultural non-state actors. The type of religious nationalism affects what type of nation state develops. The stronger the religious influence on the national movement, the greater the likelihood that discrimination and human rights violations will occur. In addition, there are scholars who argue that the activities of transnational religious actors—such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and al Qaeda—can undermine state sovereignty. The premise here is that globalization facilitates the growth of transnational networks of religious actors. Feeding off each other’s ideas and perhaps aiding each other with funds, these actors and institutions are bodies whose main priority is the well-being and advance of their transnational religious community. But opinions about the current involvement of religion in international relations and its impact on international order tend to be polarized. On the one hand, the re-emergence of religion in international relations is often seen to present increased challenges to international order, especially from extremist Islamist organizations. On the other hand, some religious actors may help advance international order—for example the Roman Catholic Church and its widespread encouragement to authoritarian regimes to democratize—by significantly affecting international governments.

Procedural Rules for the Implementation of the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises — a Public International Law Perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Schliemann
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Global Governance ◽  
Multinational Enterprises ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Public International Law ◽  
International Norm ◽  
Corporate Behavior ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Scholarly Attention

Since the 1990s it is possible to witness, in the multiplication of inter- and transnational actors, an increasing diversity in international norm-making processes as well as a growing variation in enforcing these norms, generically labeled under the term “global governance.” The actions of these private, hybrid or intergovernmental actors on the global level are increasingly seen as equivalent to the exercise of political authority formerly reserved for the state. As in the domestic context, the exercise of such authority raises questions about the procedural guarantees that anyone affected by this action should enjoy. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has evaded intensive scholarly attention from the global governance perspective thus far, although by now it is evident that it strongly contributes to this phenomenon through its various activities. The OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (Guidelines) are but one area in which the OECD is said to assume global governance functions by strongly influencing corporate behavior.

Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions for Human Rights

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Reiners
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Organizations ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Transnational Actors ◽  
Treaty Body ◽  
The Right

Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions is the first comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of informal collaborations in the UN human rights treaty bodies. Issues as central to international human rights as the right to water, abortion, torture, and hate speech are often only clarified through the instrument of treaty interpretations. This book dives beneath the surface of the formal access, procedures, and actors of the UN treaty body system to reveal how the experts and external collaborators play a key role in the development of human rights. Nina Reiners introduces the concept of 'Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions' within a novel theoretical framework and draws on a number of detailed case studies and original data. This study makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on human rights, transnational actors, and international organizations, and contributes to broader debates in international relations and international law.

War Is in the Error Term

1999 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 567-587 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Gartzke
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Error Term ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Considerable Success ◽  
Ex Ante ◽  
Stochastic Element ◽  
Better Than

At least since Thucydides, students of international relations have sought rational explanations for the advent of war. Rationalist explanations assume purposive action; states are said to make reasoned decisions about the use of force. Although rationalist explanations have proven persuasive, durable, and offer the basis for cumulative theorizing, they also imply substantial limits on what we can know about war. I show that the most general rationalist explanation for war also dictates that the onset of war is theoretically indeterminate. We cannot predict in individual cases whether states will go to war, because war is typically the consequence of variables that are unobservable ex ante, both to us as researchers and to the participants. Thinking probabilistically continues to offer the opportunity to assess international conflict empirically. However, the realization that uncertainty is necessary theoretically to motivate war is much different from recognizing that the empirical world contains a stochastic element. Accepting uncertainty as a necessary condition of war implies that all other variables—however detailed the explanation—serve to eliminate gradations of irrelevant alternatives. We can progressively refine our ability to distinguish states that may use force from those that are likely to remain at peace, but anticipating wars from a pool of states that appear willing to fight will remain problematic. For example, we may achieve considerable success in anticipating crises, but our ability to predict which crises will become wars will probably prove little better than the naive predictions of random chance. The need for uncertainty to account for war means that the same conditions thought to account for war must also exist among states not destined to fight. Otherwise, states themselves will differentiate between opponents in a way that either removes the motives for war or restores uncertainty. It has long been accepted that social processes possess an element of uncertainty, but the centrality of uncertainty to rationalist explanations for war means that the advent of war is itself stochastic. War is literally in the “error term.”

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