How do a few Third World political movements become global causes celebres, while most remain isolated? This book rejects dominant views that needy groups readily gain help from selfless nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Instead, they face a Darwinian struggle for scarce resources where support goes to the savviest, not the neediest. Examining Mexico's Zapatista rebels and Nigeria's Ogoni ethnic group, the book draws critical conclusions about social movements, NGOs, and 'global civil society'.

The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism

Activist efforts within and across societies are a proper object of study and only by including them in transnational activist research can one render an accurate understanding of transnational activist groups and, by extension, of world politics. This chapter focuses on activist society-oriented activities and demonstrates that activist organizations are not simply transnational pressure groups, but rather are political actors in their own right. The main argument is that the best way to think about transnational activist societal efforts is through the concept of “world civic politics.” One can appreciate the idea of world civic politics by drawing an analogy between activist efforts at the domestic and international levels. When activists work to change conditions without directly pressuring states, their activities take place in the civil dimension of world collective life or what is sometimes called global civil society. Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth, Oxfam, and Greenpeace target governments and try to change state behavior to further their aims.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0043887100016415

Politics Beyond the State: Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics

War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495-1975

How do a few political movements challenging Third World states become global causes celebres, whereas most remain isolated and obscure? The Marketing of Rebellion rejects the common view that needy groups readily gain help from selfless nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Even in the Internet age, insurgents face a Darwinian struggle for scarce international resources – and, to succeed, they must aggressively market themselves. To make this argument, Clifford Bob systematically compares two recent movements that attracted major NGO support, Mexico’s Zapatista rebels and Nigeria’s Ogoni ethnic group, against similar movements that failed to do so. Based on primary document analysis and more than 45 interviews with local activists and NGO leaders, the author shows that support goes to the savviest, not the neediest. TheMarketing of Rebellion develops a realistic, organizational perspective on social movements, NGOs, and “global civil society.” It will change how the weak solicit help, the powerful pick clients, and all of us think about contemporary world politics.

/pdf/the-marketing-of-rebellion-g3rnjdctco.pdf

The Marketing of Rebellion

Have scholars properly understood, anticipated, predicted, and in any way helped to shape international organization developments since 1945? Or have they merely reported on events as they unfolded, shifting their research foci from one momentary concern to another in response to the ebb and flow of conditions in the world around them? One pattern that characterizes the maturation of the field of international organization in the postwar era is the steady disengagement of international organization scholars from the study of organizations, so that today one must question whether such a field exists any longer except in name only. The discussion traces the rise and fall of international organization as a field of study, first describing the origins and the evolution of the field, then analyzing the failure of international organization scholars generally to anticipate or shape international organization developments, and finally offering some suggestions for reviving the field and the institutions themselves which are its raison d'etre.

/pdf/the-rise-and-fall-of-international-organization-as-a-field-3rv3h0ucyn.pdf

The rise and fall of international organization as a field of study

The Web of World Politics: Nonstate Actors in the Global System

Discussion of two major concerns in international relations, the actors that serve as the elements of global politics and the appropriate base for international systems, leads to a new synthesis of the systems framework. An examination of those assumptions which are most useful for the analysis of global politics suggests a model of “multiple issue-based systems.” This model transcends the traditional emphasis on security issues as all-important and escapes restrictions imposed by a too rigid adherence to system / environment distinctions and levels of analysis. The multiple system model offered is based upon the variety of actors and issues in world politics. Implications of the interdependencies and linkages among actors, issues, and systems themselves are explored. Operational procedures are suggested which can be employed to identify and analyze issue-systems. This approach allows for the synthesis within a comprehensive framework of recent innovative treatments of international relations including bureaucratic politics, integration theory, issue analysis, linkage politics, and transnationalism.

Donald E. Lampert

Papers

The Web of World Politics: Nonstate Actors in the Global System

Is there an International System