Nongovernmental Actors in International Politics

One of the most astonishing current developments in world affairs is the growing effectiveness of no state actors in international politics. Only national governments can be parties to treaties, of course, but no state entities play a role at many other levels. They come in different forms. There are international organizations such as the World Bank and regional interstate organizations like North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO), the European Union, and the Organization of American States, which take part in security, trade, and peace negotiations as participating entities, even while individual member governments pursue their own particular agendas. Substates – that is, provinces, states, and even municipalities – may pursue their own foreign policies declaring nuclear-free zones and offering development assistance, commerce, and cultural exchanges with sister cities. Some individual states – such as California, whose economy is bigger than that of all but a handful of the United States’ major trading partners – have sufficient leverage to foster their own trade deals. Cities from many parts of the world have organized together for the purpose of making an impact on major negotiations or UN Conferences on Habitat, or the Environment and Development. Business and industry, which in past generations, have pursued their international interests solely through their governments, now come to negotiations as independent players – to represent their company’s interests or as expert consultants to international bodies. They may organize for that purpose. Indeed, there are two different groups of energy corporations representing support for any opposition to stronger environmental measures at recent Climate Convention conferences of the parties, where important treaty amendments are negotiated. In these times of the multinational corporation, business interests do not always wait on their governments to represent their interests, which are not necessarily identical with those of their governments. But it is the nongovernmental organization (NGO) – defined here as a private, nonprofit organization that is not beholden to either a government or profit-making company – that we are concerned with here, for it is this category of no state players that has experienced phenomenal growth in the past decade and has become a major new force in international politics. NGOs active in international politics come in great variety, but they are all issue-oriented and advocacy organizations to some degree. They may be professional, commercial, or scientific societies, human rights, population, or women’s organizations. They may represent sectoral interests: farmers or fishing interests or foresters. They may have rural, urban, or coastal development interests or be ethnic or religious groups. They may be trade organizations representing the arms industry, pulp and paper, or textile manufacturers. NGOs are also organized at different levels; they may be national policy organizations or international organizations, such as Friends of the Earth International (FOEI), with more than 60 independent national affiliates. They may be ad hoc coalitions that come together around an issue or occasion, as the US environmental groups and labor unions have done over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade, or permanently linked organizations, such as the international family-planning, emergency relief, and human rights organizations that have stayed with an issue over time, and deal with problems all over the world. For purposes of illustrating in greater detail the history and influence of NGOs on international politics, we will use here as an example the work of environmental and development organizations whose overall objective is sustainable development, that is, economic development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.