Since the 1970s, new population health problems came on the political agenda, such as the effects of smoking and alcohol consumption, as well as, environmental conditions on the health of individuals. Due to this development health advocacy groups, which promote regulation and education policies in order to improve health conditions, based on scientific evidence, emerged. It is often the case, that health policy groups struggle against food or tobacco industries so as to influence policy maker’s choices. Tobacco control policy provides a good example for the study of interest groups in the new public health sector, because the effects, which internationalization and multiple levels of political arenas have on the groups’ behavior, can be detected. Taking this as a starting point, the paper asks how international coalitions of interest groups on tobacco control have emerged, how they operate in an international environment and how they coordinate their actions. The empirical cases utilized here are based on tobacco control policies from Australia and Switzerland. Within the paper, I argue that international arenas allowed for the formation of conceptual coalitions, which in turn led to the exchange of policy ideas, and thus provided the strategic information necessary for political action. Furthermore, it becomes clear, that coordinated international activism increased not only interest group influence, but also, the capability to advocate institutionalization of tobacco control policies.
