This dissertation explores why and how political advocacy emerged as a dominant organizational strategy for NGOs in the international development education field. In order to answer this central question, I adopt a comparative case-study approach, examining the evolution of policy advocacy positions at two leading NGOs in the field: ActionAid International and the Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE). Although these organizations differ in significant ways, both place political advocacy at the centre of their mandates, and both have secured prominent positions in global educational governance. Through comparative analysis, I shed light on why these organizations have assumed leadership roles in a global advocacy movement. I focus on how the shift to policy advocacy reflects the internal environment of each organization as well as broader trends in the international development field. Ideas of structure and agency are thus central to my analysis. I test the applicability of two structural theories of social change: world polity theory and political opportunity theory; as well as two constructivist approaches: strategic issue framing and international norm dynamics. I offer some thoughts on establishing a more dynamic relationship between structure and agency, drawing on Fligstein and McAdam’s concept of strategic action fields. In order to test the utility of these theoretical frameworks, the study begins with a historical account of how ActionAid and ASPBAE have shifted from service- and practice- oriented organizations into political advocates. These histories are woven into a broader story of normative change in the international development field. I then examine the development of a number of key advocacy strategies at each organization, tracing how decisions are made and implemented as well as how they are influenced by the broader environment. I find that while it is essential to understand how global trends and norms enable and constrain organizational strategy, the internal decision-making processes of each organization largely shape how strategies are crafted and implemented. These findings offer insight into the pursuit of advocacy as a political strategy and the role of NGOs in global social change.

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Since 2009, International Relations scholars have researched the role of big advocacy groups in giving access to the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW). To further these studies, the focus of this thesis is on the progress of negotiations for the 6-year period since the issue has been adopted, asking the question – How has the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots chosen to frame lethal autonomous weapons systems, and how successful has that framing been for the period of 2013 to 2019? I argue that advocates undertook a normative securitisation process to frame the existential threat lethal autonomous weapons systems (LAWS) pose to human beings. This argument is supported by a dual method research approach of 1) semi-structured elite interviews; and 2) qualitative content analysis of reports. The findings of this research show that, while the advocacy group has not achieved success in the form of a legally binding agreement at the CCW, they have successfully developed a process of moral stigmatization of LAWS that contributes to the creation of a new humanitarian security regime.

This dissertation reveals the long-term implications of Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs) on domestic environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) in India. It asks two questions: i. what opportunities and challenges do Indian NGOs face while addressing environmental issues within a transnational framework? ii. in what ways can southern domestic activists reduce the challenges of TAN neocolonialism and Indian state repression? It argues that TANs fail to leverage indigenous interests in the global South and that TAN activity increases Indian activists’ exposure to state repression. Existing transnational relations literature downplays the neocolonial side of transnationalism in favour of the short-term benefits of international recognition and material and financial aid. Drawing on over 50 research participant interviews and print documents collected over the course of six-months in New Delhi and Bengaluru, the research teases out the everyday lived experiences and histories of domestic activists in TANs. It analyzes how certain traditional rural-based advocacies that adopt a Gandhi-based approach such as the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) and Pathalgadi movements reject transnational alliances with international NGOs for fear of dominance and oppression, while urban-based advocacies that receive material and financial security from abroad such as Greenpeace India, ActionAid India, and Amnesty International view TANs as a boon for the Indian environmental advocacy sector. The research argues that Indian environmentalists would benefit if they shifted away from TANs towards a ‘global solidarity’ model that incorporates intersectionality between movements and South-South Transnational Advocacy Networks (SSTANs). / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research contributes to gaps in the international relations literature explaining the emergence of transnational advocacy networks. Specifically, this research contributes to understanding TAN emergence due to a gap in institutional approaches to casualty recording in conflict and why actors join TANs. This TAN is particularly worthy of investigation because casualty records measure the scope of violence in a conflict and are often highly politicized and contested. Existing explanations of TAN emergence can be organized into three broad categories of analysis: sociological, political, and economic. The earliest explanations align with a sociological explanation for TANs as a mechanism for changing international norms. Social movement theorists account for TANs as a mechanism for civil society to challenge power structures. While other researchers suggest TANs should be treated like interest groups, and their emergence stems from an economic need for material incentives. This research extends the economic category of analysis and argues that actors join TANs for non-material, intangible incentives. Intangible benefits include knowledge, methodologies, data, or access to data sources. This research utilized a qualitative case study method to test all three categories of existing explanations using surveys, interviews, and archival records. Testing not only investigated hypotheses relating to the three categories of existing theories but also produced findings describing facilitators of TAN emergence, temporally-bound intangible benefits, and the types of intangible benefits available to actors. TANs are important to international politics because they influence norms, shape policies, and function as a bridge for local actors with the international community. This research produced findings with central themes about why resource-poor actors may spend their limited resources to join TANs. Further investigation into the intangible benefits available to actors joining TANs in settings other than conflict may provide greater insight into the value of intangible benefits to collective behavior. / Doctor of Philosophy / While body counts are generally presented as a measure of accountability or to raise awareness about civilian deaths in the public sphere, body counts are fiercely contested and highly politicized. This occurs during the conflict and decades after a conflict is resolved. Civilian body counts serve as political apparatuses for states and political actors to negotiate, challenge, and produce security narratives. Because of this politicization, the number of civilian casualties in violent conflict is not fully known, and their deaths' impact on the overall state's security is not well understood. While International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and human rights laws provide protection for civilians in conflict, documenting casualties is not addressed. International law does not prescribe methods for recording casualties; therefore, there is a gap in how international institutions approach accounting for casualties. In the early 2000s, facilitated by ICTs, civil society began to fill this gap by documenting casualties and collaborating across boundaries. This research traces the emergence of a Transnational Advocacy Network (TAN) that appeared in 2009 to collaborate on recording conflict casualties. This study produced five findings and contributes to understanding how ICTs facilitate TANs and identifying intangible benefits available to actors at network events that motivate their participation. Intangible benefits include knowledge, methodologies, data, or access to data sources. This research is worthy of investigation because TAN development is poorly understood yet they influence international politics by shaping norms, policies and linking local communities with international organizations.

This study is concerned with the concept of internationalisation as a tool for disadvantaged minorities to affect change in their situation. This phenomenon has been studied widely with respect to authoritarian regimes and later on with liberal Western democracies. The current study has focussed on the state of Israel and the situation of its Palestinian Arab minority to investigate the origins and purposes of internationalisation, the extent to which these efforts have achieved the objectives that were set, and whether this process is in any sense capable of achieving them. The analysis shows that the internationalisation process whereby the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel sought to reclaim their rights by invoking the support of the international community has emerged in the 1950s. It came to be perceived as necessary because internal legal and political processes were understood to be insufficient to achieve any redress for their grievances. The Arab leadership in Israel articulates internationalisation as a strategy designed to invoke the norms of democracy to question the conduct of successive Israeli governments, and counter the narrative offered by them on the world stage. The internationalisation strategy is seen to undergo a profound transformation from public memoranda, to civil and legal advocacy by invoking international conventions and treaties and finally to personal diplomacy. The results show that it is not a zero sum game; it is an especially effective method in different ways and with varying degrees of success. It created an extension of the critique of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories to its Palestinian minority. Using the international law in the modality of legal advocacy to compel the Israeli state to adhere to the commitments it had made by acceding to an international convention, proved more effective than mere political pressure. Another factors such as the nature of the claims, geopolitical circumstances, global momentum, and domestic politics are crucial as well for the success of the internationalisation. Yet, Israel’s response varied in particular cases to minimise external critics, and its respect for the international law was uttered by utilitarian justification to protect its reputation. The application of the social constructivist boomerang-spiral model to the process of internationalisation is deemed to be a particularly effective instrument to explore both the potential and the limits of the process of compelling the Israeli state to conform to internationally supported norms. The results of this study demonstrate that the construction of the state’s identity as a Jewish and concerns over national security are potentially in conflict with the egalitarian democratic norms that it claims to be governed by. The implications of these two elements for the operation of the Israeli state has resulted in a failure to fully integrate its Arab citizens. The Nation-State Law of 2018 reinforces the legal and systematic discrimination against the Palestinians in Israel and explains why internationalisation has not been successful. 443 It is the first comprehensive investigation into a selected series of case studies that document international appeals made by Israel’s Arab elite due to three chronological periods: 1948-1979, 1992- 2013 and 2015 onwards. On a theoretical level, it is the first time that the spiral model has been tested in the context of Israel and its Arab minority. This can serve as a strategic information source for Arab MKs, NGOs and Israeli decision makers.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is an explanatory study into civil society's increased influence in global governance. More specifically this situation is examined by looking at the generic medicine debate that came in the wake of the passing of the Medicines and Related Substances Act by the South African government in 1997. This debate gained worldwide attention and touched some of the prevailing inequalities between the developed world and the developing world in our globalised society. The research question that is addressed here is to what extent did civil society influence the signing of the Doha Declaration of the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health by the members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2001? In doing so, this thesis looks at the role of the US government, the South African government, the pharmaceutical industry, the WTO's TRIPS Agreement and civil society in the form of nongovernmental organisations like Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Oxfam and Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF). The study applies a constructivist approach in order to analyse how civil society used global advocacy networks to inform and communicate the normative concerns regarding South Africa and developing countries' lack of access to HIVand AIDS drugs. Moreover, it examines how civil society's use of moral authority challenged the regulative power of the WTO. The study concludes that civil society played a vital role in influencing the WTO member states' decision to sign the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health. However, it was not only civil society's ability to set the agenda concerning the HIV/AIDS pandemic, but also the content of the normative concerns themselves that help explain its success. Consequently, the study further concludes that civil society's success in this specific case must be seen in light of its growing influence in challenging global governance. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is 'n verduidelikende studie van die burgerlike samelewing se groeiende invloed in globale regering. Hierdie situasie word meer spesifiek ondersoek deur te kyk na die generiese medisyne debat wat gevoer is na die Suid-Afrikaanse Regering die Medisyne en Verwante Stowwe Wet van 1997 goedgekeur het. Hierdie debat het wêreldwye aandag geniet en het geraak aan sommige van die bestaande ongelykhede wat daar heers tussen die ontwikkelde en ontwikkelende wêreld in die geglobaliseerde samelewing. Die navorsingsvraag wat hier aangespreek word is tot watter mate die burgerlike samelewing die ondertekening van die Doha Verklaring van die TRIPS Ooreenkoms en Publieke Gesondheid deur lede van die Wêreld Handelsorganisasie (WHO) in 2001 beïnvloed het. Deur dit te doen, sal hierdie tesis kyk na die rol van die Amerikaanse regering, die Suid- Afrikaanse regering, die farmaseutiese bedryf, die WHO se TRIPS Ooreenkoms en die burgerlike samelewing in die vorm van nie-regerings organisasies soos die Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), Oxfam en Medecines Sans Frontieres (MSF). Die studie maak gebruik van 'n konstruktiwistiese benadering om 'n analise te doen van hoe die burgerlike samelewing globale ondersteunings netwerke gebruik het om die normatiewe besorgdhede wat heers oor die tekorte in Suid-Afrika en die ontwikkelende lande ten opsigte van toegang tot MIV en VIGS medisyne, toe te lig en te verkondig. Verder ondersoek die studie hoe die gebruik deur die burgerlike samelewing van morele gesag die regulerende mag van die WHO uitgedaag het. Die studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat die bugerlike samelewing 'n uiters belangrike rol gespeel het in die WHO lidlande se besluit om die Doha Verklaring van die TRIPS Ooreenkoms en Publieke Gesondheid te onderteken. Dit was egter nie net die burgerlike samelewing se vermoë om die agenda daar te stel ten opsigte van die MIV/VIGS pandemie nie, maar ook die inhoud van die normatiewe besorgdhede self wat bygedra het om hierdie sukses te verduidelik. Gevolglik kom die studie tot die verdere gevolgtrekking dat die burgerlike samelewing se sukses in hierdie spesifieke geval gesien kan word in die lig van sy groeiende invloed in die uitdaging van globale mag en gesag.

[pt] O caso do apartheid na África do Sul foi singular porque institucionalizou um arranjo sociojurídico diametralmente oposto às normas que balizaram a gestação da ordem internacional pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial. A notável contradição catalisou uma reação em cadeia no combate ao regime sul-africano, e o ativismo antiapartheid conseguiu operacionalizar uma das mais dinâmicas redes de ativismo transnacional, desenvolvendo canais de diálogo e um amplo leque de estratégias de combate nas esferas doméstica, regional e internacional. O presente estudo - ancorado na literatura construtivista sobre o ativismo transnacional - irá problematizar a formação e funcionamento da rede de ativismo transnacional antiapartheid e suas ferramentas operacionais, como o efeito-bumerangue, analisando sua influência sobre a execução de sanções estratégicas, sociais, econômicas contra o regime segregacionista sul-africano. / [en] The case of apartheid in South Africa was unique because it institutionalized an socio-juridical arrangement diametrically opposite to the norms which has framed the gestation of the international order after World War II. The remarkable contradiction catalyzed a chain reaction in fighting the South-African regime, and the anti-apartheid activism could operate one of the most dynamic transnational advocacy networks, developing channels of dialogue and a wide range of strategies to combat on domestic, regional and international spheres. This study - anchored in the constructivist literature on transnational activism - will discuss the formalization and operation of the antiapartheid transnational advocacy network and its operational tools, like the boomerang pattern, by analyzing its influence on the implementation of economic, strategic and social sanctions against the South African segregationist regime.