Alongside the new “rising powers” transnational nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are seen as important “agents of contestation” which address demands and raise criticism at international organizations (O’Brien et al. 2000). But how is it possible for (some) NGOs to make their voice heard in (some) transnational forums?
The current NGO literature tends to assume that, first, NGOs have gained importance in global governance over the past decades and that, second, it is in particular the big Western NGOs whose claims are heard and whose ideas and norms are represented in international forums. The standard account is that the NGOs have become more influential agents of contestation as a result of revolutions in individual skills and in communication technologies that have jointly allowed for the creation of stronger civil society networks. These networks are dominated by Western NGOs because it is them who can put pressure on the governments of the major states in world politics.
Both elements of this standard account seem plausible at first sight, but they also have their weaknesses. Neither of the two “revolutions” that are assumed to have led to a greater role for NGOs in world politics are limited to advanced industrialized countries; moreover, the standard account has little to say about how changes in the distribution of power within the international system affect its model of successful NGO contestation. In response to these shortcomings, we use two case studies on societal protest against the world trade regime and on civil society participation in climate negotiations in order to explore how international NGOs have become agents of contestation, and how the interplay between “Northern” and “Southern” civil society organizations has unfolded in these fields.
