Theory of Transnational Activism Issues - Term Paper Example

Keck and Sikkink’s theory of transnational activism explaining contemporary progress of human rights Keck and Sikkink andMargaret Sikkink originally formulated the network notion of human rights practice in international studies. The popular description of Keck and Sikkink’s works involves a consideration of transnational advocacy networks as groups that involve relevant actors working globally on issues and bound together by common values, discourse and exchange of solid information and services. Activists in international associations seek to influence outcomes of policy as well as change the terms and the character of debate. The various attributes of networks constitute core network conception represented in Keck and Sikkink theory of transnational activism. One of the key values to the theory is values, which motivate network actors to work together because of shared values or principle idea embedded in international human rights laws. Keck and Sikkink works revolve around ideas or values to diffuse progressive ideas in order to aid institutionalize value in political process and bring government practice to comply with established norms. Network is made of various types of actors like international and domestic non-governmental organizations, private foundations, local movements, media, churches, intellectuals and parts of governmental apparatus and politicians. Hence, international and domestic NGOs play a significant role since they are characterized by coordination and cooperation between actors in the network and exchange information, services, resources and personnel (Tang 229-230). Transnational human rights associations are capable of doing a lot in guaranteeing the protection of human rights. For instance, transnational human rights network participate in drafting international human rights laws, advocate and diffuse norms inherent in laws and promote socialization of norms in domestic politics. Moreover, transnational networks place human rights problems of a nation on the international agenda, legitimize and empower the claims of repressed groups in a country and mobilizes international pressure against nations that violate the norms. Since most members in transnational activism networks have no economic or military power, one may wonder how transnational activism accomplishes their task in a world filled with power struggles. First, actors in transnational activism derive moral authority from the legitimacy inherent in international norms of human rights. Since ideas and norms have constructive power to define state identities and interests transnational activists use their persuasive power to enforce policy changes. Transnational activists are “teachers of norms” as well as authors of norms thus they persuade policy makers to change their minds regarding what is right and alter public perception of what governments do. Hence, transnational activism makes difference by standing on the right side and defining what is right (Tang 231-232). Nevertheless, moral power of transnational activists never guarantees moral success in actual political processes; hence, members of the network of international activists employ sets of strategies to gain from strengths of norms in order to change certain human rights practices. Strategies for transnational activists on human rights fall in two categories soft politics and hard politics, with soft politics refereeing to strategies that depend on information and moral persuasion. Contract between domestic and international organizations, transnational activists uncover facts human rights violations within a country and circulate information regarding state repression unknown to the outside world. These transnational activists of human rights then embark on campaigns that aim at shaming the international community by exposing inconsistency of state behavior and values it claims to aspire. Transnational activists employ hard politics with essential strategy in this area being leverage politics where network members lobby for policies in external countries and international organizations to consider changes in repressive regimes through diplomatic channels. Through informal contacts with influential political figures or formal access to policy processes, international activists convince liberal states of the obligation to protect international human rights norms to which transnational activists are committed. Powerful countries like the US and influential organizations like the United Nations are the places transnational activists seek leverage against repressive countries since the sanctions of these power holders is the goal of these activists lobbying efforts (Tang 236). Transnational human rights activists are capable of bringing changes to state policies and improve the situation of human rights within a nation. Chile is an exemplary example in this regard because under repressive regime of Pinochet, Chile domestic actors like the church funneled information regarding the repression within the country to the outside world. At the same time, amnesty international and international commission of jurists sent delegates to the country in order to gather information on human rights and they circulated reports on torture, disappearance, illegal arrests and murders to the international community. These organizations lobbied the United States congress to impose sanctions and motivated the United Nations to investigate and condemn the situations in Chile. Finally, the repressive rule was terminated in 1988 and free elections were held, which were largely advocated for by transnational activists. Thus, such preferred transformations within certain policies are normally the targets of international activists’ efforts. Through invocation of international laws once human rights crisis exists and by constantly referring to international norms in their daily rhetoric raises the moral consciousness, broadens the audience for the norms and enhances establishment of moral standards like norms. Hence, the principled ideas regarding human rights are socialized into the discourse of political processes and into the perceptions of the public. As commonly argued by constructivists, ideas do matter in that they help constitute identity of actors and constrain their behaviors. Therefore, through dissemination of human rights ideas, transnational activists enhance identification with international norms among political elites and the public as well as induce rule-consistent behavior accordingly. Thus, transforming the ideational background of domestic and international political stages, transnational activists bring out friendly wok space for human rights activists for future practice of human rights protection. Success in human rights protection does not translate immediately into changes in certain policies since it takes time for the norms to be broadcast and be accepted, and it takes even longer time to influence politics in a tangible way. Transnational activists contribute to the transformation of world politics by filling the power structure with norms, which create a different set of rules that countries have to abide by. Penetrating national borders through non state actors’ activities, transnational activists represent a group of actors and states that share the same stage with NGOs and other likeminded organizations. This transformation is beneficial to international human rights protection since the usual focus in national borders and state sovereignty has a tendency to obstruct such enterprises. Though policy change is a direct target for transnational activists, their latent contribution goes beyond that and is far more fundamental. Therefore, Keck and Sikkink theory on transnational activism contributes to international studies in various ways since it summarizes and makes sense of the large proportion of human rights practices in international politics, which never fit well with theoretical approaches. Hence the theory tries to link the alleged divide between two competing paradigm in current international studies (Tang 238). The persuasive power of moral authority and the ability of norm in shaping identities clearly show a close link of transnational activism theory to the paradigm of constructivism. The network of transnational activism acknowledges the significance of power politics, which is mainly reflected in strategies for leveraging politics in form of pressure, sanctions and arm twisting. Therefore, transnational activists usually use the energies of other powerful actors who can connect human rights practices and economic aid or bilateral relations. However, the lack of parsimony along with other things may result in theoretical indistinctness. In transnational activism, this ambiguity is evident in the problem of the relative status of the power of norms and that of hard politics. Hence, Keck and Sikkink simply claim that both intersubjective factors as well as the strategic use of power are essential to network of transnational activism. However, to protect the centrality of value, transnational activism considers the norms to have the autonomous space in which they exert influence independent of other factors. Work cited Tang, Min. "Transnational Human Rights Networks." Political Studies Review 7.2 (2009): 229-240. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 June 2013 Read More