transnational advocacy network

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a set of actors working internationally on an issue who are bound together by shared values, a common discourse, and dense exchanges of information and services, as theorised by Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink in Activists Beyond Borders (1998); TANs include NGOs, social movements, foundations, media organisations, religious institutions, and individual activists who coordinate across national boundaries to influence state policies and international norms; their key strategy is the boomerang pattern — when domestic actors cannot influence their own government directly, they link up with international allies who apply external pressure on the target government through international organisations, foreign governments, and media; TANs have been credited with major achievements in international norm change including the international ban on landmines through the Ottawa Process, the creation of the International Criminal Court, and the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; critics note that TANs are often dominated by Northern organisations that set agendas for Southern advocacy without adequate accountability to affected communities

Examples

• The transnational advocacy network against apartheid connected South African activists with solidarity movements, divestment campaigns, and sympathetic governments worldwide.
• Keck and Sikkink's boomerang model explains how activists bypassed repressive governments by appealing to international allies.