NGO Diplomacy ─ The Influence of Nongovernmental Organizations in International Environmental Negotiations

Over the past thirty years nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have played anincreasingly influential role in international negotiations, particularly on environmental issues.NGO diplomacy has become, in the words of one organizer, an "international experiment indemocratizing intergovernmental decision making." But there has been little attempt todetermine the conditions under which NGOs make a difference in either the process or the outcome ofinternational negotiations. This book presents an analytic framework for the systematic andcomparative study of NGO diplomacy in international environmental negotiations. Chapters by expertson international environmental policy apply this framework to assess the effect of NGO diplomacy onspecific negotiations on environmental and sustainability issues. The proposed analytical frameworkoffers researchers the tools with which to assess whether and how NGO diplomats affect negotiationprocesses, outcomes, or both, and through comparative analysis the book identifies factors thatexplain variation in NGO influence, including coordination of strategy, degree of access,institutional overlap, and alliances with key states. The empirical chapters use the framework toevaluate the degree of NGO influence on the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol negotiations on globalclimate change, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the United Nations Convention to CombatDesertification, negotiations within the International Whaling Commission that resulted in newmanagement procedures and a ban on commercial whaling, and international negotiations on forestsinvolving the United Nations, the International Tropical Timber Organization, and the World TradeOrganization.ContributorsSteinar Andresen, Michele M. Betsill, Stanley W. Burgiel, Elisabeth Corell,David Humphreys, Tora Skodvin Michele M. Betsill is Associate Professor in the Department ofPolitical Science at Colorado State University. Elisabeth Corell, the Wallenberg Fellow inEnvironment and Sustainability at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs from 2001 to 2006,is currently an independent scholar.