Adams surveys the impact of transnational organizations and NGOs on Latin American politics since 1990. The transition from military to civilian rule in Latin American countries has benefited local progressive forces, but resilient remnants favoring the past's authoritarian politics have compelled organizations like the UN, IMF, OAS, and World Bank to engage in various campaigns to deepen democratic institutions and norms. Adams argues that to understand current political transformations in the region, one must consider the existing role of external organizations. Latin America is offered as a prime example of the increased influence transnational authorities have over political decisions that had long been the exclusive prerogative of national governments. Beginning with the Latin American experience, Adams reviews the contemporary character of power and politics in the area, outlining how democratic transitions have been limited. UN human rights and reform initiatives are considered. Adams scrutinizes the work of the World Bank, the IMF, and the Inter-American Development Bank to modernize public administration, strengthen political institutions, enhance transparency and accountability, and fortify civil society. He also examines the work and impact and the Organization of American States and various global citizens groups.

Do international institutions actually contribute to building a lasting peace? Counter-examples and criticisms abound: failures and submissiveness to the interests of the most powerful states. As diplomats, practitioners with these institutions, and experts in their fields, the contributors to this volume underline the strengths and weaknesses that these international actors have created and will not abandon. Their research and investigations reveal that despite the fact that it is possible to wage a war against the will of international institutions, it has become almost impossible to make peace without them. The issues examined--collective security, disarmament, mediation, peace building, human security, reduction of poverty and inequalities, international criminal justice, and multilateralism--make this edited volume a key reference work on international organizations.

"Popular struggles in the global south suggest the need for the development of new and politically enabling categories of analysis, and new ways of understanding contemporary social movements. This book shows how social movements in Africa, South Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East politicize development in an age of neoliberal hegemony"--

Who should provide food, and through what relationships? Whose livelihoods should be protected? For over 20 years the peasant farmers of La Via Campesina have been engaged in the fight against injustice, hunger and poverty under the banner of food sovereignty, 'the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems'. They campaign for healthy, sustainable alternatives to an industrial food system controlled by agribusiness companies and the architects of unfair trade agreements. This book draws on grounded case studies of agrarian movements in the Americas and Europe as exemplars of a 'power shift,' as local opposition scales up to global action in an effort to wrest control of our food away from transnational corporations and back to communities.

Japan was shaken by the 'double disaster' of earthquake and sarin gas attack in 1995, and in 2011 it was hit once again by the 'triple disaster' of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown. This international, multi-disciplinary group of scholars examines the state and societal responses to the disasters and social crisis.

Is 'development' the answer for positive social change or a cynical western strategy for perpetuating inequality? Moving beyond an increasingly entrenched debate about the role of NGOs, this book reveals the practices and social relations through which ideas of development are concretely enacted.

Over the past decade, international human rights organisations and think tanks have expressed a growing concern that the space of civil society organisations around the world is under pressure. This book examines the pressures experienced by NGOs in four partial democracies: Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia and the Philippines.

In the first detailed study of how a major environmental NGO works transnationally, Brian Doherty and Timothy Doyle examine the relationships between the 74 national organizations of Friends of the Earth International. Drawing from a rich mix of survey data, interviews, archival sources and access to internal meetings, they show how FoEI has developed a distinctive international environmentalism, which allows for the differences in context between regions and across the North-South divide. Following the expansion of FoEI into the global South, the challenges it then faced over questions of ideology, organization and campaign strategy are examined over a twenty year period. The book demonstrates the development of an FoEI tradition of solidarity which accounts for its ability to overcome internal crises and pursue joint campaigns despite conflicting understandings of politics between its national organizations.

The Arab Spring put non-governmental public action centre-stage in the drive for greater social justice. Governments, politicians and international institutions increasingly court non-governmental public actors, engaging them in policy dialogue, inviting them to participate in the delivery of social services, and looking to them to re-invigorate democratic politics. This unique collection explores the different organizational forms, strategies and tactics that activists adopt to pursue social justice goals and analyses how histories of resistance impinge on contemporary activism in both positive and negative ways. The authors examine how established corporatist trades unions struggle to reform as new forms of labour resistance challenge their legitimacy and proximity to government. They analyse how non-governmental public actors negotiate various 'civil society dilemmas' that emerge in the new spaces for collaboration opened up by government, focusing particularly on threats to their values, autonomy and legitimacy. They also explore the efforts of non-governmental public actors to secure greater justice in the sphere of production and distribution, be that through co-operatives or through consumer rights activism around access to essential drugs.

Distinctions between the public and private have fashioned modern political life, as well as social theory. Globalization challenges these distinctions and sets the stage for new research questions about the dynamics of politics. Based on a constructivist framework, and drawing on original empirical research conducted in local, national and transnational settings, this volume explores the transformation of political practices across the public and private, as well as the domestic and foreign, and examines the role of a mediated global environment in shaping contemporary politics.

This book examines how international aid donors and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) can assist countries in the Asia-Pacific region achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The book examines the progress countries have made towards the MDGs and highlights the need to tailor the goals to individual country circumstances.

In the waning years of the Cold War, the United States and China began to cautiously engage in cultural, educational, and policy exchanges, which in turn strengthened new security and economic ties. These links have helped shape the most important bilateral relationship in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book explores the dynamics of cultural exchange through an in-depth historical investigation of three organizations at the forefront of U.S.-China non-governmental relations: the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and The 1990 Institute. Norton Wheeler reveals the impact of American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on education, environment, fiscal policy, and civil society in contemporary China. In turn, this book illuminates the important role that NGOs play in complementing formal diplomacy and presents a model of society-to-society relations that moves beyond old debates over cultural imperialism. Finally, the book highlights the increasingly significant role of Chinese Americans as bridges between the two societies. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with leading American and Chinese figures, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics and history, international relations and transnational NGOs.

This book explores the ways in which non-state actors (NSAs) in South Asia are involved in securitizing non-traditional security challenges in the region at the sub-state level. South Asia is the epicentre of some of the most significant international security challenges today. Yet, the complexities of the region's security dynamics remain under-researched. While traditional security issues, such as inter-state war, border disputes and the threat of nuclear devastation in South Asia, remain high on the agendas of policy-makers and academics both within and beyond the region, scant attention has been paid to non-traditional or 'new' security challenges. Drawing on various case studies, this work offers an innovative analysis of how NSAs in South Asia are shaping security discourses in the region and tackling security challenges at the sub-state level. Through its critique of securitization theory, the book calls for a new approach to studying security practices in South Asia - one which considers NSAs as legitimate security actors. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, Asian security, Asian politics, critical security studies, and IR in general.

Most national taxation regimes afford certain privileges to non-governmental non-profit organizations of public benefit. However, cross-border extension of such privileges has failed to materialize in any significant way, despite various efforts and the existence of model treaty provisions and even draft NGO multilateral tax treaties. Although experts tend to oppose harmonization on the grounds that international privilege would sink to the lowest national level there does seem to be general agreement that tax incentives to encourage the cross-border activity of public benefit organizations should be clarified and augmented. The expert authors whose work is assembled in this book offer rich perspectives on this issue. Their various analyses include the following: detailed discussion of the objections of principle commonly advanced by states; the role of discrimination legislation in strategies to advance cross-border privilege; the continuing failure of political will to achieve changes in this area of taxation; the potential of reciprocal unilateral action; tax treaties and non-tax treaties with tax-related provisions; multilateral initiatives (OECD, UN, EU, Council of Europe, World Bank, regional treaties); and Documentation (International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation). Quite apart from its importance as an in-depth study of a taxation issue of significant social value, The Tax Treatment of NGOs will be of great assistance to NGOs and their supporters and benefactors. It opens the way to more vigorous lobbying power for the NGO community to influence changes in taxation law and policy.

In the waning years of the Cold War, the United States and China began to cautiously engage in cultural, educational, and policy exchanges, which in turn strengthened new security and economic ties. These links have helped shape the most important bilateral relationship in the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This book explores the dynamics of cultural exchange through an in-depth historical investigation of three organizations at the forefront of U.S.-China non-governmental relations: the Hopkins-Nanjing Center for Chinese and American Studies, the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and The 1990 Institute. Norton Wheeler reveals the impact of American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on education, environment, fiscal policy, and civil society in contemporary China. In turn, this book illuminates the important role that NGOs play in complementing formal diplomacy and presents a model of society-to-society relations that moves beyond old debates over cultural imperialism. Finally, the book highlights the increasingly significant role of Chinese Americans as bridges between the two societies. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with leading American and Chinese figures, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese politics and history, international relations and transnational NGOs.

Analysing the relationship between civil society and the state, this book lays bare the assumptions informing peacebuilding practices and demonstrates through empirical research how such practices have led to new dynamics of conflict. The drive to establish a sustainable liberal peace largely escapes critical examination. When such attention is paid to peacebuilding practices, scholars tend to concentrate either on the military components of the mission or on the liberal economic reforms. This means that the roles of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and the impact of attempting to nurture Northern forms of civil society is often overlooked. Focusing on the case of Cambodia, this book seeks to examine the assumptions underlying peacebuilding policies in order to highlight the reliance on a particular, linear reading of European / North American history. The author argues that such policies, in fostering a particular form of civil society, have affected patterns of conflict; dictating when and where politics can occur and who is empowered to participate in such practices. Drawing on interviews with NGO representatives and government representatives, this volume will assert that while the expansion of civil society may resolve some sources of conflict, its introduction has also created new dynamics of contestation. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, development studies, S.E. Asian politics, and IR in general.

This book explores the ways in which non-state actors (NSAs) in South Asia are involved in securitizing non-traditional security challenges in the region at the sub-state level. South Asia is the epicentre of some of the most significant international security challenges today. Yet, the complexities of the region's security dynamics remain under-researched. While traditional security issues, such as inter-state war, border disputes and the threat of nuclear devastation in South Asia, remain high on the agendas of policy-makers and academics both within and beyond the region, scant attention has been paid to non-traditional or 'new' security challenges. Drawing on various case studies, this work offers an innovative analysis of how NSAs in South Asia are shaping security discourses in the region and tackling security challenges at the sub-state level. Through its critique of securitization theory, the book calls for a new approach to studying security practices in South Asia - one which considers NSAs as legitimate security actors. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, Asian security, Asian politics, critical security studies, and IR in general.

Democracy and Interest Groups assesses the contribution that interest groups make to the democratic involvement of citizens and the generation of social capital. It examines how interest groups are formed and how they maintain themselves - focussing specifically on the supply-side dimension of group membership that is how groups generate and stimulate citizen involvement. The authors draw on new surveys of groups and group members and, more unusually, with non-participants. It also makes use of in-depth interviews with campaign group leaders and organizers.

Development was founded on the belief that religion was not important to development processes. The contributors call this assumption into question & explore the practical impacts of religion by looking at the developmental consequences of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa, & contrasting Pentecostal & secular models of change.

This book examines changing state-civil society relations in Japan with a focus on the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Tokyo's foreign policy. Globalization and industrial maturation have weakened state authority and sparked the growth of NGOs in Japan. NGOs are gaining influence in a number of areas, most prominently in aid and development. This influence is expressed both through grassroots pressure campaigns and by growing collaboration between NGOs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By analyzing this important new phenomenon, the book sheds light on the changing nature of state-civil society relations and the role of NGOs in promoting democracy.

Collective action by firms is a central phenomenon in society, seen for example in standards setting, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and in relation to climate change, environmental and human rights issues. This incisive book reveals how firms set up specific devices, referred to by the authors as FCADs (Firms' Collective Action Devices), of which trade associations and chambers of commerce are the traditional forms, and investigates how firms organize themselves collectively, and their impact on the economy and democracy. Delving deeply into previously under-explored aspects of collective actions by firms, using the concepts of meta-organization and heterarchy, the book combines and expands on insights from history, political science, economics, sociology, management and organization theory. It demonstrates empirically how FCADs function on the basis of compromise and consensus, and analyzes their forms of action, their organizational dynamics and their recent evolution. This rigorous and pluridisciplinary evaluation of how businesses organize collectively will appeal to researchers and PhD students in organization studies and business management, as well as those in other disciplines who are interested in firms' collective action. It will also be a useful resource for business practitioners, public servants and politicians in contact with firms' collective action, and NGO members.

It was hoped that by paying forest dependent peoples and countries for their 'service' of conserving their forests, REDD+ would lead to a reduction in deforestation greenhouse gases. The complexities have, however, left some ambiguities. It was never agreed who would pay for the programme, and it has been criticised as ignoring the root causes of forest loss. Considering the motivations of those who promoted REDD+ this book proposes remedies to its shortfalls and recommends more efficient, equitable and effective conservation policies. Describing REDD+ from an agency perspective, this book provides a first-hand account of how individuals and institutions influenced international negotiations. It offers a comparative analysis of REDD+ as a forest conservation regime and of the way it was incorporated into the 2015 Paris agreements. In doing so, this book shows how contextual inequalities and power imbalances can result in international regimes which favour the economically powerful, and proposes providing greater roles for the assumed beneficiaries of environmental agreements in negotiations. This is an excellent introduction to REDD+, its background and execution, and will be a vital resource for students of international environmental governance, as well as for academics and researchers working on REDD+, forest policy and international governance in general.

This volume provides a survey of current research problems and results in humanitarian operations research. Additionally, it discusses existing applications of humanitarian operations research, and considers new research efforts that clearly extend existing research and applications. The book is divided into three sections that provide an overview of the subject, a look at the theory, and an examination of applications. The overview section presents chapters on modeling approaches and metrics to evaluate nonprofit operations; chief findings of fieldwork research in disaster response logistics; the use of cash as a form of relief; and measuring markets that supply cash-based humanitarian interventions. The theory section includes chapters that examine the partner proliferation problem in disaster response networks; a case study of humanitarian logistics that examines how humanitarian culture informs change adoption; and a look at the current state of the art for information visibility in humanitarian operations. Finally, the application section focuses on blood products, vaccines, and food assistance, with individual chapters on efficient inventorying and distribution of blood products during disasters; a detailed look at modeling in the context of the vaccine supply chain; a framework for achieving equity, effectiveness, and efficiency in food bank operations; and a spatio-temporal vulnerabili ty assessment of the resilience of a population affected by sudden lack of food.

Collects new insights on current security problems, especially those related to arms control and disarmament. Contributors argue that the cooperative efforts of NGOs and middle powers have positively impacted the use of child soldiers, the employment of cluster bombs, landmines, nuclear weapons, and the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. In doing so, they conclusively show that global players other than superpowers can create alternative and effective solutions to enduring security problems.

The devastating effects of HIV/AIDS have propelled a multiplicity of activities at global, national and local level. This book is based on in-depth studies of the major global institutions in health (WHO, UNAIDS, World Bank, WTO, Global Fund); the role of pharmaceutical corporations; the functions of NGOs; and the national responses to HIV/AIDS in Brazil and South Africa. The authors offer a unique political science perspective on this important issue and bring to light the relevance of their conclusions for other areas of health and global governance.