Academics have generally overlooked how NGOs use and produce knowledge to influence policymaking, or have acknowledged it but have not assessed it using the concept of epistemic communities....Show moreAcademics have generally overlooked how NGOs use and produce knowledge to influence policymaking, or have acknowledged it but have not assessed it using the concept of epistemic communities. However, knowledge can also be a powerful tool in the hands of NGOs. Indeed, this study demonstrates that NGOs are more than just advocacy actors; like epistemic communities, they influence politicians’perceptions and actions with their knowledge. To determine this, I have closely examined the role of knowledge in three NGOs bases in Brussels: Ciré, CNCD11.11.11 and Plate-Forme Mineurs en Exil, and interviewed one employee from each organisation. I then compared my findings to expectations of how NGOs would use and produce knowledge to influence policymaking, and determined that they matched the characteristics of epistemic communities. Nevertheless, this research is based on interviews and looked at specific cases. To generalise my conclusions, further research would have to be done.Show less
In the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was...Show moreIn the first decades following decolonisation, African nations were on the forefront of promoting absolute sovereignty and non-intervention. The Constitutive Act of the African Union that was adopted in 2000, grants the organisation the right to intervene in case of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity. This reflects a conceptualisation of sovereignty as responsibility. To understand this shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty, this thesis conducts a discourse analysis of nine official declarations of the Organization of African Unity between 1990 and 1999 through the lens of constructivist theory. It finds that collective identity, in the guise of Pan-Africanism, serves an important role in enabling the shift in conceptualisation of sovereignty through narrative and interaction. This suggests that collective identity, explicitly on the regional level, is an important factor to be considered in the institutionalisation of humanitarian intervention and has implications for the Responsibility to Protect.Show less
Malala Yousafzai is a teenage woman who is known for her advocacy for the right to education for girls. After the attack of the Taliban on October 9th 2012 she has evolved from a ‘normal’ girl to a...Show moreMalala Yousafzai is a teenage woman who is known for her advocacy for the right to education for girls. After the attack of the Taliban on October 9th 2012 she has evolved from a ‘normal’ girl to a norm entrepreneur advocating the right to education for girls on an international level. According to Finnemore and Sikkink, norm entrepreneurs play a critical role in the first stage of norm emergence in the norm life cycle (1998, 895). Constructivism lacks a theory of agency. The role of individuals as norm entrepreneurs has been neglected in previous research in particular. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on how individuals as norm entrepreneurs attempt to persuade states to conform to a norm. Norm entrepreneurs challenge discourse through persuasion. According to Keck and Sikkink there are four advocacy tactics norm entrepreneurs use to spread their norm(s). These are: information politics, symbolic politics, leverage politics and accountability politics (1999, 95). This thesis presents a sinlge case study of Malala as a norm entrepreneur diffusing the right to education for girls. Keck and Sikkink’s typology of advocacy tactics is used to determine which advocacy tactic Malala uses in her advocacy. Content analysis of four of her speeches of 2013 is done through a combination of qualitative and quantative research. The results of the analysis of the four speeches show that Malala mainly uses symbolic politics as the dominant advocacy tactic to diffuse the right to education for girls, which is often combined with information politics as the subdominant advocacy tactic. Moral leverage is also often used to motivate others to join her advocacy.Show less
Why did the overall attempt of Syrian opposition groups to democratize Syria, fail? The purpose of this study is to answer this question and identify this case as a case of norm non-diffusion in...Show moreWhy did the overall attempt of Syrian opposition groups to democratize Syria, fail? The purpose of this study is to answer this question and identify this case as a case of norm non-diffusion in the broad framework of social constructivism. This is interesting because most theorists seek to explain norm diffusion in terms of success rather than failure. It does this by defining norms and the way they typically diffuse. The study identifies persuasion tactics as set out by Keck and Sikkink (1999) and combines these tactics with socialization mechanisms as provided by Risse, Ropp and Sikkink (1999). This leads to the exposure of constructivists’ models, which will be discussed in the theoretical framework. During the analysis of this study four attempts of democratization are analyzed by these models. The focus of this analysis relies on the successful use of the tactics in a chronological way and stresses the importance of the presence of support by the Syrian state, the Syrian people and the U.S.Show less
According to the rational choice theory acting cooperative in collective goods problems is not rational because the benefits of cooperating do not outweigh the costs. The fact that some countries...Show moreAccording to the rational choice theory acting cooperative in collective goods problems is not rational because the benefits of cooperating do not outweigh the costs. The fact that some countries do cooperate in international collective goods problems means that something must be missing from traditional rational choice models. IR theorists have tried to explain how it is possible that some countries do cooperate in collective goods problems while others do not.This research examines oil wealth as an explanation for non cooperative behavior in collective goods problems. This explanation is derived from the realist school of thought. The results of this research show that in two different cases oil wealth is negatively related to cooperative behavior in collective goods problems. Also other explanations from realist, liberalist and constructivist theories have been tested and compared to understand the importance of any of these explanations when explaining state behavior in collective goods problems.Show less
This thesis is inspired by the will to understand why the international community stands by while mass atrocities are committed by the Syrian government. My research question ‘Why does the...Show moreThis thesis is inspired by the will to understand why the international community stands by while mass atrocities are committed by the Syrian government. My research question ‘Why does the international community not intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Syria?’ forms the premise for this thesis. My main argument is that because of the non-consensus within the international community about R2P as a norm, there is a lack of political will to intervene in the situation in Syria. Furthermore, I argue that this lack of consensus is caused by the protection of the national interests of the states involved, especially the security of their sovereignty. These arguments are substantiated by the acceptance of my hypotheses which are based on the core assumptions of realism, liberalism, and constructivism. These hypotheses show that the protection of sovereignty, the lack of a common interest, and the non-consensus about R2P are crucial aspects in the decision not to intervene in the humanitarian crisis in Syria.Show less
