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Showing papers on "International relations published in 2021"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a theoretical framework for understanding the nature and implications of politicization of international cooperation, outlining three scope conditions: the nature of public contestation, the activities of political entrepreneurs, and the permissiveness of political opportunity structures.
Abstract: International institutions are increasingly being challenged by domestic opposition and nationalist political forces. Yet, levels of politicization differ significantly across countries facing the same international authority as well as within countries over time. This raises the question of when and why the mass public poses a challenge to international cooperation. In this article, we develop a theoretical framework for understanding the nature and implications of politicization of international cooperation, outlining three scope conditions: the nature of public contestation, the activities of political entrepreneurs, and the permissiveness of political opportunity structures. By empirically examining these scope conditions, we demonstrate that politicization can have both stabilizing and destabilizing effects on international cooperation. Highlighting the systemic implications of politicization for international cooperation has important implications for international relations scholarship. Although international organizations may face challenges, they also have ways of being remarkably resilient.

84 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper explored the nationalist roots of the trade war from both the US and Chinese perspectives, and concluded that until both sides are convinced they have achieved their goals, or the USA undergoes an administration change, the conflict will likely continue.
Abstract: The trade war between the USA and China has shocked many across the world. A disruption to the interdependence of the two largest economies seemed unfathomable. However, in an effort to thwart China’s economic practices and boost the US economy, President Trump’s administration levied tariffs on Chinese imports shortly after taking office, moving US foreign economic policy from liberalism, practiced for decades, to protectionism. China has retaliated, and the trade war continues today. With conceptual insights from the nationalism literature, we explore the nationalist roots of the trade war from both the US and Chinese perspectives. In the USA, the Trump administration’s plan to achieve energy autonomy, decrease reliance on foreign resources, and reinvigorate the manufacturing sector has led to protectionist policies, the othering of China, and hence the trade war. Although reluctant to enter the conflict, China has rebuffed the USA, resisting and counterattacking US actions, owing to a long-felt sense of persecution in the global space and an eagerness to participate fully, and lead in some issue areas, in international affairs. The conflict continues into the COVID-19 era, marked by US scapegoating of China and hits to economic performance. Until both sides are convinced they have achieved their goals, or the USA undergoes an administration change, the conflict will likely continue.

69 citations


Book
20 Nov 2021
TL;DR: Introduction Chapter 1: Research Methods in International Relations Chapter 2: Research Questions and Research Design Chapter 3: Research Ethics Chapter 4: Writing a Literature Review Chapter 5: Qualitative Methods in international Relations Chapter 6: Quantitative methods in International relations Chapter 7: Mixed Methods inInternational Relations Chapter 8: Case Study Research in Internationalrelations Chapter 9: Field Research in international relations Chapter 10: Writing Up Your Research
Abstract: Introduction Chapter 1: Research Methods in International Relations Chapter 2: Research Questions and Research Design Chapter 3: Research Ethics Chapter 4: Writing a Literature Review Chapter 5: Qualitative Methods in International Relations Chapter 6: Quantitative Methods in International Relations Chapter 7: Mixed Methods in International Relations Chapter 8: Case Study Research in International Relations Chapter 9: Field Research in International Relations Chapter 10: Writing Up Your Research

66 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a spatial perspective to examine the nature of China's transnational influence, focusing on the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for international relations.
Abstract: This paper develops a spatial perspective to examine the nature of China’s transnational influence, focusing on the implications of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) for international relations. D...

56 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of colonial and imperial legacies on states' migration management is discussed, and the evolution of migration policymaking across the Global South is of growing interest to International Relations.
Abstract: The evolution of migration policymaking across the Global South is of growing interest to International Relations. Yet, the impact of colonial and imperial legacies on states’ migration management ...

42 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argue that the rise of global migration flows has contributed to the emergence of transnational authoritarianism, as autocracies aim to both maximize material gains from citizens' "exit" and minimize political risks by controlling their "voice" abroad.
Abstract: How, when, and why does a state take repressive action against individuals residing outside its territorial jurisdiction? Beyond state-led domestic forms of control over citizens living within their legal borders, autocracies also seek to target those abroad—from African states’ sponsoring violence against exiled dissidents to Central Asian republics’ extraditions of political emigres, and from the adoption of spyware software to monitor digital activism across Latin America to enforced disappearances of East Asian expatriates. Despite growing global interconnectedness, the field of international studies currently lacks an adequate comparative framework for analyzing how autocracies adapt to growing cross-border mobility. I argue that the rise of global migration flows has contributed to the emergence of “transnational authoritarianism,” as autocracies aim to both maximize material gains from citizens’ “exit” and minimize political risks by controlling their “voice” abroad. I demonstrate that governments develop strategies of transnational repression, legitimation, and co-optation that transcend state borders, as well as co-operation with a range of non-state actors. Bringing work on the international politics of migration in conversation with the literature on authoritarianism, I provide illustrative examples drawn from a range of transnational authoritarian practices by the fifty countries categorized as “Not Free” by Freedom House in 2019, covering much of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. I sketch an emerging field of international studies research around the novel means that autocracies employ to exercise power over populations abroad, while shedding light on the evolving nature of global authoritarianism.

40 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a distinction between macro-and micro-level approaches is made between war violence and domestic violence against civilians, grounded in the international relations sub-field, for the first time.
Abstract: Early research on wartime violence against civilians highlighted a distinction between macro- and micro-level approaches. Macro-level approaches, grounded in the international relations subfield, f...

36 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
04 Jul 2021
TL;DR: The authors excavates the early international thought of the British historian and expert on international affairs Arnold J.Toynbee, focusing on his shifting views on nationality, internat... and international relations.
Abstract: The article excavates the early international thought of the British historian and expert on international affairs Arnold J. Toynbee. It focuses on Toynbee’s shifting views on nationality, internat...

32 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a comprehensive framework that places race at the heart of the liberal order, offers the novel concept of "embedded racism" to capture how sovereignty shields domestic racism from foreign interference, and proposes an agenda for mainstream International Relations that takes race seriously.
Abstract: Formal racial equality is a key aspect of the current Liberal International Order (LIO). It is subject to two main challenges: resurgent racial nationalism and substantive racial inequality. Combining work in International Relations with interdisciplinary studies on race, I submit that these challenges are the latest iteration of struggles between two transnational coalitions over the LIO's central racial provisions, which I call racial diversity regimes (RDRs). The traditional coalition has historically favored RDRs based on racial inequality and racial nationalism. The transformative coalition has favored RDRs based on racial equality and nonracial nationalism. I illustrate the argument by tracing the development of the liberal order's RDR as a function of intercoalitional struggles from one based on racial nationalism and inequality in 1919 to the current regime based on nonracial nationalism and limited equality. Today, racial nationalists belong to the traditional coalition and critics of racial inequality are part of the transformative coalition. The stakes of their struggles are high because they will determine whether we will live in a more racist or a more antiracist world. This article articulates a comprehensive framework that places race at the heart of the liberal order, offers the novel concept of “embedded racism” to capture how sovereignty shields domestic racism from foreign interference, and proposes an agenda for mainstream International Relations that takes race seriously.

30 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors assesses whether the Global South has lost its distinctiveness and coherence relative to the North since 1980 and concludes that the Brandt Line is largely intact, even though the economic diversity of the South has increased and its collective economic power has risen, relative income rankings remain unaltered.
Abstract: The Brandt Line is a way of visualising the world that highlights the disparities and inequalities between the wealthy North and the poorer Global South. Forty years after its popularisation as part of a call for global reform, is the Brandt Line now a misleading way of representing world politics? This article assesses whether the Global South has lost its distinctiveness and coherence relative to the North since 1980. Existing assessments of global inequality do not settle the question of whether the North–South divide remains relevant for international relations because they overlook the most politically significant measures of inequality. Drawing on power transition theory, this article provides a systematic assessment of the North–South divide in terms of levels of economic development, relative inequality, economic power, and political satisfaction. The evidence suggests that the Brandt Line is largely intact. Although the economic diversity of the South has increased and its collective economic power has risen, relative income rankings remain unaltered and the states of the Global South are as dissatisfied as they were four decades ago. Differential growth rates are reshaping world politics without eroding the North–South divide traced by the Brandt Line.

29 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary concern and argued that international relations (IR) approach to the Himalaya is not suitable.
Abstract: This article examines international relations (IR)'s approach to the Himalaya We argue that the possibility of violent conflict over contested international borders is not the region's primary int

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper argued that the international order founded on sovereign equal nation-states was co-constituted by the influence of relatively weak actors through decentralized processes of contestation over core international norms.
Abstract: The idea of liberal international order as a world order is understood to be constituted as a result of disproportionate Anglo-American influences. This is in line with much of international relations (IR) theory, which typically characterizes the emergence of order as resulting from the diffusion or imposition of norms and institutions from the world's centers of power. This article argues otherwise, its premise being that the international order founded on sovereign equal nation-states was co-constituted as well by the influence of relatively weak actors through decentralized processes of contestation over core international norms. Drawing on international relations, history, and law, this article outlines a framework to interpret the actions and mechanisms by which supposedly weak actors shaped international order. It concisely traces the constitution of order as based on its fundamental norms and assesses the implications of the argument for the current crisis of liberal order, as well as IR theory more broadly, laying out a research agenda for the future.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss what the discipline can do to alleviate its blind spots and identify challenges to truth-subversion practices as a threat for the Liberal International Order (LIO).
Abstract: Truth-subversion practices, which populist leaders utilize for political domination, are a significant source of current pressure on the Liberal International Order (LIO). Truth-subversion practices include false speak (flagrant lying to subvert the concept of facts), double speak (intentional internal contradictions in speech to erode reason), and flooding (the emission of many messages into the public domain to create confusion). Aiming to destroy liberal truth ideals and practices, truth subversion weakens epistemological security; that is, the experience of orderliness and safety that results from people's and institutions’ shared understandings of their common-sense reality. It privileges baseless claims over fact-based opinions, thus creating communities of the like-minded between which communication becomes impossible. Truth subversion challenges the LIO's three key institutions: democracy, markets, and multilateralism. If truth-subversion practices prevail, societal polarization, inaccurate information, and emotional inflaming strain democracy and human rights protections. Markets that depend for their functioning on accurate information can falter, and multilateralism that relies on communication and reasoned consensus can decay. International relations (IR) scholarship has recognized knowledge production practices as a key feature underlying the LIO, but has not yet identified challenges to those practices as a threat for the LIO. We discuss what the discipline can do to alleviate its blind spots.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examines the "new professions" as alternative settings where women thought and wrote about the international and examines the case studies of Fannie Fern Andrews, Mary Parker Follett and Florence Wilson, showing that, in emerging professional and disciplinary contexts that have hitherto lain beyond the purview of historians of international thought, these women developed their thinking about international.
Abstract: This article examines the “new professions” as alternative settings where women thought and wrote about the international. Presenting the case studies of Fannie Fern Andrews, Mary Parker Follett and Florence Wilson, it shows that, in emerging professional and disciplinary contexts that have hitherto lain beyond the purview of historians of international thought, these women developed their thinking about the international. The insights they derived from their practical work in schools, immigrant communities and libraries led them to emphasize the mechanics of participation in international affairs and caused them to think across the scales of the individual, the local group and relations between nations. By moving beyond the history of organizations and networks and instead looking for the professional settings and audiences which enabled women to theorize, this article shifts both established understandings of what counts as international thought and traditional conceptions of who counts as an international thinker.

Journal ArticleDOI
Bahar Rumelili1
TL;DR: In this paper, the distinction between anxiety and fear and the relevance of this distinction for international relations (IR) theory is discussed, and the authors argue that anxiety impacts international relations as a public mood, a collective way of being attuned to the world.
Abstract: This article is based on the keynote address I delivered in June 2019 at the Central and Eastern European International Studies Association (CEEISA) conference in Belgrade. Drawing on existentialist thought, I first discuss the distinction between anxiety and fear and the relevance of this distinction for international relations (IR) theory. Then, building on the Heideggerian notion of mood and its recent applications to IR by Erik Ringmar (2017, 2018), I argue that anxiety impacts international relations as a public mood—‘a collective way of being attuned to the world’. Connecting existentialist thought on anxiety with contemporary IR and political science research on securitisation and populism, I discuss how, in periods and contexts where we are collectively attuned to the world in anxiety, the resonance of securitisation and the appeal of nativist and populist doctrines that offer ideological and moral certainty are enhanced.


Book
21 Oct 2021
TL;DR: The 1965 U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic remains a unique event: the only time the Organization of American States has intervened with force on a member state's territory as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The 1965 U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic remains a unique event: the only time the Organization of American States has intervened with force on a member state's territory. It is also a classic example of a U.S. military operation that drew in America's hemispheric allies. Finally, its outcome was that rare feat in the annals of diplomacy -- a peaceful political settlement of a civil war.Here for the first time is the full story of that action, as told by one of its leading participants. General Palmer was the U.S. Army's operations chief in Washington in April 1965 when the Dominican crisis broke, and was placed in command of U.S. forces deployed to the Republic. His perspective thus reflects both the perceptions of Washington officials and those of the U.S. commander on the scene.Palmer's instructions from President Johnson were to prevent another Cuba. Although the intervention remains controversial today, especially with Latin Americans, it was successful both politically and militarily, bringing unprecedented stability to the long-troubled Dominican Republic. The lesson Palmer draws is that success in such a venture comes only when political and military actions are orchestrated toward a common political goal.Palmer concludes with an assessment of the current situation in the broader Caribbean area, including a comparison of the 1965 Dominican and 1983 Grenadian interventions, and an analysis of the situation in Panama with its implications for the Canal Treaty. His book is a timely contribution to the history of the Caribbean that enlarges our understanding of this region's vital importance to the United States.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored three waves of populist foreign policies in Latin America (classic, neoliberal, and progressive) and found that the tendency of such governments to jointly (re)construct transnational solidarities for legitimation purposes and to adopt economic foreign policies with a pragmatic bent.
Abstract: How do populists conduct foreign policy? The existing literature on populism focuses mainly on domestic patterns, and until recently the foreign dimension of populism has been largely overlooked. This paper aims to fill theoretical and empirical lacunae by mapping patterns of change and continuity in the formulation of geopolitical and economic international policy among Latin-American populist governments. Striving to conduct a systematic comparative analysis, this paper explores three waves of populist foreign policies in Latin America (classic, neoliberal, and progressive). While it is difficult to highlight a unified phenomenon, the findings reveal that several ‘unifying’ elements indeed exist: they are manifest in the tendency of such governments to jointly (re)construct transnational solidarities for legitimation purposes and to adopt economic foreign policies with a pragmatic bent. Moreover, in opposition to the two first waves of populist governments, the most recent wave has embraced personalist styles, emotional public diplomacy, and clientelist techniques with support networks abroad, thus actively projecting the domestic patterns of populism to the regional and global levels in an attempt to leverage both domestic and international legitimacy. This study offers critical lessons for IR scholarship’s increasing engagement with populism, contributing to the lively debate regarding the rise of populist trends across the globe.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The IIGO 2.0 dataset is presented, the most comprehensive compilation of these institutions to date, and the significance of IIGOs is illustrated through several key empirical findings.
Abstract: Informal intergovernmental organizations (IIGOs) such as the Proliferation Security Initiative and G20 increasingly play a central role in governing international relations. IIGOs are based on recu...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address the puzzle of why, and under what conditions, international organisations cease to exist and provide rich explanations for the creation, design, and termination of international organisations.
Abstract: This article addresses the puzzle of why, and under what conditions, international organisations cease to exist. International Relations literature offers rich explanations for the creation, design...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relations: authority as contract, authority as domination, Authority as impression, and authority as consecration, and conclude that the emergence of international authority does not necessarily imply the weakening of the sovereignty of states, but can equally be argued to strengthen it.
Abstract: Abstract There is increasing agreement that states and other political actors on the world stage sometimes achieve international authority. However, there is less agreement about the nature and functioning of international authority relations. What determines whether an actor will be recognized as an authoritative actor? And what are the effects thereof? In this essay, we identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relations: authority as contract, authority as domination, authority as impression, and authority as consecration. Consideration of the typology leads to two important insights. First, the phenomenon of authority has an essentially experiential dimension. Subordinate actors’ emotional experience of authority determines their response to authority and thus also has a fundamental impact on the stability of authority. Second, the emergence of forms of international authority does not entail, at least not necessarily, the weakening of the sovereignty of states, but can equally be argued to strengthen it.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a triangular relationship between climate change, security and the military is analyzed using the case study of the Indian military, where the authors categorize the security moves as symbolic, strategic, precautionary and transformative.
Abstract: Climate change is increasingly shaping security narratives, including military strategy. While considering climate change a security issue, the military’s role in this discourse and praxis becomes critical as a security actor. However, the interrelationships between climate change, security and the military are conceived and approached by different states diversely. Within different states, this triangular relationship is guided by processes with varied practical/policy implications. While ‘securitization’ has generally been used to explain climate security, other processes such as ‘climatization’ have assumed significance, wherein security practices are climatized. The Indian military too has been engaging with security implications of climate change, but by using approaches distinct from Western states, which have been the usual focus in such analyses. In this paper, the framework of climatization is used to analyse the triangular relationship, using the case study of the Indian military—by categorizing climatizing moves as symbolic, strategic, precautionary and transformative.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the role of historical memory and deconstructs the key interconnected components that support Xi's rhetoric, namely, the chosen trauma, glory, and amnesia, and concludes that the effect of this rhetoric on China's domestic and foreign policy and some of the risks that accompany it.
Abstract: China's emergence as a great power has been accompanied by the official rhetoric of the China Dream of Great Rejuvenation (weida fuxing 伟大复兴). Although there are conflicting views among academics and political elites about the exact content of the China Dream, one of its features is the nostalgia for China's past and its five-thousand-year-old civilization. Xi Jinping's current rhetoric of a China Dream of Great Rejuvenation uses a reinvented history as an asset for the future, linking China's natural progress as a global power with a selective re-reading of its millennial history. While much existing literature already discusses China's Great Rejuvenation, this article looks more specifically at the role of historical memory and deconstructs the key interconnected components that support Xi's rhetoric, namely, the chosen trauma, glory, and amnesia. The conclusion offers some general remarks about the effect of this rhetoric on China's domestic and foreign policy and some of the risks that accompany it. This article contributes to the debates on the influence of memory in International Relations (IR), showing how constructed memories of history can significantly impact both national identity and foreign policy.

Journal ArticleDOI
Burak Kadercan1
TL;DR: While scholars and experts unanimously identify the group also known as Islamic State (ISIS) as a ‘territorial’ organization, there is little systematic analysis in International Relations (IR) res...
Abstract: While scholars and experts unanimously identify the group also known as Islamic State (ISIS) as a ‘territorial’ organization, there is little systematic analysis in International Relations (IR) res...

Book
05 Apr 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a systematic analysis of International Organizations apolitical claims and show that depoliticization sustains IO everyday activities while allowing them to remain engaged in politics, even when they pretend not to.
Abstract: Building on the concept of depoliticization, this book provides a first systematic analysis of International Organizations (IO) apolitical claims. It shows that depoliticization sustains IO everyday activities while allowing them to remain engaged in politics, even when they pretend not to. Delving into the inner dynamics of global governance, this book develops an analytical framework on why IOs "hate" politics by bringing together practices and logics of depoliticization in a wide variety of historical, geographic and organizational contexts. With multiple case studies in the fields of labor rights and economic regulation, environmental protection, development and humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, among others this book shows that depoliticization is enacted in a series of overlapping, sometimes mundane, practices resulting from the complex interaction between professional habits, organizational cultures and individual tactics. By approaching the consequences of these practices in terms of logics, the book addresses the instrumental dimension of depoliticization without assuming that IO actors necessarily intend to depoliticize their action or global problems. For IO scholars and students, this book sheds new light on IO politics by clarifying one often taken-for-granted dimension of their everyday activities, precisely that of depoliticization. It will also be of interest to other researchers working in the fields of political science, international relations, international political sociology, international political economy, international public administration, history, law, sociology, anthropology and geography as well as IO practitioners.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that women thinkers are absent from the international relations canon due to the gendered and racialized selection and reception of work that is deemed to be canonical.
Abstract: Canons of intellectual “greats” anchor the history and scope of academic disciplines. Within international relations (IR), such a canon emerged in the mid-twentieth century and is almost entirely male. Why are women thinkers absent from IR’s canon? We show that it is not due to a lack of international thought, or that this thought fell outside established IR theories. Rather it is due to the gendered and racialized selection and reception of work that is deemed to be canonical. In contrast, we show what can be gained by reclaiming women’s international thought through analyses of three intellectuals whose work was authoritative and influential in its own time or today. Our findings question several of the basic premises underpinning IR’s existing canon and suggest the need for a new research agenda on women international thinkers as part of a fundamental rethinking of the history and scope of the discipline.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper developed a model for causal explanations amenable to interpretive International Relations (IR) research and applied it to the analysis of the Iran-Contra nuclear deal and the Iran nuclear deal.
Abstract: This article develops a model for causal explanations amenable to interpretive International Relations (IR) research. A growing field of scholars has turned toward causal inquiry while stressing th...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The international dimension of authoritarian resilience is receiving increased attention by scholars of comparative politics and international relations alike as mentioned in this paper, which suggests that autocratic resilience is correlated with the resilience of states.
Abstract: The international dimension of authoritarian resilience is receiving increased attention by scholars of comparative politics and international relations alike. Research suggests that autocratic sta...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper addresses three significant challenges to the foundations of the current liberal order: the entrenchment of authoritarianism, characterized by authoritarian resilience, autocratization, and the consolidation of competing authoritarian political-economic models; the exacerbation of nationalism enabled by nationalist and populist politicians; and the intensified competition among major powers.
Abstract: In 2018, 43 leading International Relations scholars in the United States signed a public statement in support of an urgent call to preserve the current international order, triggering heated scholarly debates. The idealized form of the liberal international order was criticized by many scholars for its chronic problems, including the contradictions between proclaimed liberal values and illiberal behaviors, the inability to reform its institutional pillars to accommodate the diverse group of emerging powers, and the tensions between the defenders of this order and its challengers. These problems became fully exposed under the external shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. As the coronavirus spreads globally and disrupts the world's political, economic, and social fabric, several forces that have gained momentum and strength during the last decade are now converging as a formidable force that may reconfigure the post-pandemic international order. This paper addresses three significant challenges to the foundations of the current liberal order: (1) the entrenchment of authoritarianism, characterized by authoritarian resilience, autocratization, and the consolidation of competing authoritarian political-economic models; (2) the exacerbation of nationalism enabled by nationalist and populist politicians; and (3) the intensified competition among major powers. China has played mixed roles in the process of reconfiguring the current order. It challenges the mythologized liberal international order and exposes the contradictions in the dominant Western model, while promoting an alternative hybrid political-economic model. The shock brought by the pandemic has provided ample opportunities for China to extend its networks and expand international space for its model.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors study the nature and significance of transnational NGO enforcement and explore the factors behind its rise, concluding that increased demand for enforcement reflects the growing gap between the increased legalization of international politics and states’ limited enforcement capacity.
Abstract: Scholars have studied international NGOs as advocates and service providers, but have neglected their importance in autonomously enforcing international law. We have two basic aims: first to establish the nature and significance of transnational NGO enforcement, and second to explore the factors behind its rise. NGO enforcement comprises a spectrum of practices, from indirect (e.g., monitoring and investigation), to direct enforcement (e.g., prosecution and interdiction). We explain NGO enforcement by an increased demand for the enforcement of international law, and factors that have lowered the cost of supply for non-state enforcement. Increased demand for enforcement reflects the growing gap between the increased legalization of international politics and states’ limited enforcement capacity. On the supply side, the diffusion of new technologies and greater access to new legal remedies facilitate increased non-state enforcement. We evidence these claims via case studies from the environmental and anti-corruption sectors.