Playing the international card: Exploring the international opportunities of domestic resistance actors in autocratizing countries

In an age of an increasing number of authoritarian and autocratizing states, International Organisations (IOs) are not only affected by these states, that seek to instrumentalise them to their ends, but also potential recipients of activism by domestic resistance actors, that is civil society organisations or engaged individuals acting in defence of democracy at home. These actors contest the state governments in their domain, the international arena, by attempting to mobilise IO support for their domestic struggle to uphold democracy. We argue that resistance actors 'play the international card' to pursue two goals: to impose costs on the backsliding incumbent and to increase their domestic legitimacy. Looking at resistance actors in autocratizing states, we identify three strategies employed by resistance actors: They provide information to an international audience to tilt the cost-benefit ratio of backsliding to their favour, they selectively use international litigation to counter domestic repression, and they engage in advocacy to push IOs to implement their preferred solutions. Drawing on case studies, we exemplify these strategies and develop hypotheses under which conditions resistance actors play the international card. We argue that IO openness to non-state actors and the domestic context, specifically CSO capabilities and repression, enable or constrain to play the international card. The paper thereby links the domestic and international level in the context of resistance against autocratization.