Non-state actors play an increasingly visible role in global governance and maintain increasingly complex transnational relations across traditional state boundaries. This seminar will focus primarily on the academic literature analyzing non-state activism and its role in shaping global institutions and domestic political and social change. The seminar will begin with a survey of the key theoretical literature on non-state activism and identify some of the methodological challenges arising from studying transnational relations. The second half of the seminar will present in-depth examples of the consequences of non-governmental activism in the humanitarian, environmental, development, and human rights areas. The following questions will guide our joint inquiry into this rapidly growing research field:
What accounts for the emergence and evolution of transnational actors, their goals, and strategies/tactics?
What are the core differences and similarities among non-state actors as well as between non-state actors and states?
What determines the success of non-state actors in global affairs? What are the limits of transnational activism
How and why do experiences of non-governmental activism vary across regions and issue areas?
How legitimate are transnational interventions orchestrated by non-state actors?
Download: syllabus (abbreviated, .pdf)