Transnational Advocacy Networks
Definition
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink’s Activists Beyond Borders (Cornell University Press, 1998) introduced the framework of transnational advocacy networks for understanding how domestic NGOs, international NGOs, and states interact across borders — and how a campaign blocked at home can ‘boomerang’ through international allies to put pressure on the original target. Transnational advocacy networks are composed of actors working internationally on an issue who are bound together by shared values, a common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services. [source: keck-sikkink-activists-beyond-borders]
The framework’s central insight is that information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics, and accountability politics are the four channels through which transnational networks work. Information politics involves the rapid generation, packaging, and dissemination of information that would otherwise not reach domestic publics or policymakers; symbolic politics frames issues in ways that resonate with shared principles, generating leverage through the symbolic power of the network’s claims; leverage politics is the network’s ability to call on powerful actors to put pressure on the original target; accountability politics is the network’s effort to hold the target institution to publicly stated commitments. [source: keck-sikkink-activists-beyond-borders] A campaign that names which channel it is using will design its strategy more precisely than one that lumps them together.
Practitioner uses (the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the International Service for Human Rights, the Keck-Sikkink legacy literature) treat the boomerang pattern — when a domestic NGO is blocked by a repressive state, it loops out through international allies and re-enters domestic politics from outside, where international pressure creates the leverage the state had previously denied — as a diagnostic. [source: keck-sikkink-activists-beyond-borders] The question is is this a domestic campaign that could benefit from international support, or a transnational campaign that needs domestic partners, rather than a one-size-fits-all recipe.
Full page: [[transnational-advocacy-networks]].
FAQ
What is transnational advocacy networks?
Transnational advocacy networks is the Keck and Sikkink term for the collection of relevant actors working internationally on a given issue — domestic NGOs, international NGOs, social movements, foundations, the media, governments, and intergovernmental organisations — linked by shared values, a common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services. The full-page version of this definition lives on [[transnational-advocacy-networks]].
What are the four political mechanisms?
The framework’s central insight is that information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics, and accountability politics are the four channels through which transnational networks work. Information politics involves rapid generation and dissemination of information that would otherwise not reach domestic publics; symbolic politics frames issues in ways that resonate with shared principles; leverage politics is the network’s ability to call on powerful actors; accountability politics holds the target institution to publicly stated commitments [source: keck-sikkink-activists-beyond-borders].
How is the boomerang pattern used diagnostically?
Practitioner uses (the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law, the International Service for Human Rights, the Keck-Sikkink legacy literature) treat the boomerang pattern — when a domestic NGO is blocked by a repressive state, it loops out through international allies and re-enters domestic politics from outside — as a diagnostic. The question is is this a domestic campaign that could benefit from international support, or a transnational campaign that needs domestic partners?
What is the boomerang pattern?
The boomerang pattern is the framework’s most-cited claim: when a domestic NGO is blocked by a repressive state, it loops out through international allies and re-enters domestic politics from outside, where international pressure creates the leverage the state had previously denied [source: keck-sikkink-activists-beyond-borders].