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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/114030 |
| Date | 02 March 2023 |
| Creators | Ruiz, Jeanette Renee |
| Contributors | Public Administration/Public Affairs, Ahram, Ariel I., Olson, Philip R., Peters, Joel, Stivachtis, Ioannis |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
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