‘Targeting Lethal Weapons’. Issue-Adoption and Campaign Structure in Transnational Disarmament Campaigns

30 Pages Posted: 19 Nov 2019

See all articles by Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni

Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni

University of Cambridge

Laura Breen

University of Cambridge - Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS)

Date Written: November 1, 2019

Abstract

We theorize the membership, target-selection, and timing of transnational advocacy campaigns as a function of longstanding professional networks between NGOs and individual professional campaigners. Unlike previous scholarship that focuses on the role of powerful “gatekeeper” NGOs whose central position within transnational issue-networks allows them to promote or block specific issues at will, we draw on recent work in sociology and organizational studies to bring into focus a wider community of individuals and organizations whose competition for professional growth and “issue-control” (Henriksen and Seabrooke 2016) shape the transnational advocacy agenda. In doing so we elaborate and qualify existing notions of gatekeeping pioneered by Bob (2005, 2010) and Carpenter (2011, 2014). Highly connected and resource-rich NGOs are often less able to “set” or “vet” agendas than previous scholarship suggests. Instead, porous organizational borders and “revolving doors” imply that advocacy agendas are shaped by professional networks that develop between organizations. Efforts by individual professional staff to steer the agenda towards issues that fit their personal expertise and career ambitions — rather than wider political context or longstanding organizational commitments to specific issues — play a crucial role in transnational agenda-setting.

Keywords: transnational advocacy, humanitarian disarmament, network theory, transnational professionals

Suggested Citation

Eilstrup-Sangiovanni, Mette and Breen, Laura, ‘Targeting Lethal Weapons’. Issue-Adoption and Campaign Structure in Transnational Disarmament Campaigns (November 1, 2019). Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Research Paper No. RSCAS 2019/89, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3489052 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3489052

Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni (Contact Author)

University of Cambridge ( email )

Trinity Ln
Cambridge, CB2 1TN
United Kingdom

Laura Breen

University of Cambridge - Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) ( email )

First Floor, 17 Mill Lane
Cambridge, CB2 1RX
Great Britain

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