Abstract
As a complex system and institutional arena, the climate change regime has, for many decades, challenged International Relations (IR) scholars to expand their analysis beyond the level of the state. In The New Climate Activism: NGO Authority and Participation in Climate Change Governance, Jen Iris Allan explores the phenomenon of non-expert NGOs (non-governmental organizations) shifting their advocacy to be seen as experts in international climate change governance. Allan offers a novel theory of how this process occurs and demonstrates this theory in action with studies of five NGO networks (labour, women’s rights, climate justice, health, and human rights) that attempted to expand into the climate regime.
Allan opens the book by explaining the concept she calls “forum multiplying,” wherein NGOs expand their presence into additional forums to advance their causes (6). She explains that the process of forum multiplying includes three critical steps: (1) identifying a new regime; (2) gaining entry into the regime; (3) and mobilizing within to have their contributions included (25). She subsequently argues that NGOs are motivated by political, normative, or material/financial circumstances to seek forum multiplying, though she explains that the political and normative motivations for this are the “dominant currency” over material factors.
One of the more interesting arguments that Allan makes is that funding matters far less than other experts may assume in the phenomenon of forum multiplying. While she acknowledges that finance plays a role in these relationships and dynamics of joining the regime, she argues that funding cannot overcome other motivation factors necessary for successful forum multiplication. This is a potentially challenging finding for those studying the climate change governance regime from a political economy perspective, where financial and economic structures are assumed to have a much more critical role in shaping actor behaviour. While Allan makes a strong case for why and how this is, I found myself wanting a more direct engagement with literature on political economy in the climate change governance regime. It is because it is such an interesting and challenging argument that more depth is desirable. Without such engagement, it is difficult to untangle the political or normative motivations from the material motivations of NGOs seeking to multiply their forums.
In the three critical steps of forum multiplying, once NGOs have selected a new regime, they will attempt to gain entry. Allan emphasizes that to do so, NGOs must: (a) have coherence with the frames of the new regime; (b) obtain allies; and (c) leverage rules (31). Logically, NGOs need to show that they can contribute to internal and external messaging of their newly chosen regime, which works to reduce competition, rival claims, and prevent co-option (32). In regimes with more centralized structures, this often looks like one well-connected NGO driving the lead for messaging; in less centralized regimes, there are multiple NGOs leading factions of messaging within (33). In addition to the coherence of messaging, NGOs seeking to gain entry often need a broker who can introduce, choose, and diffuse new ideas. These brokers are often the norm entrepreneurs within the regime and signal to other NGOs in the regime that “they’re with me” (34). Finally, NGOs need to leverage the rules of the regime. Doing so demonstrates “tacit if not explicit acceptance” of how the regime defines problems and the scope of solutions it sees as legitimate (36). In the case of the climate change governance regime, Allan explains that this may look like the process of being recognized as a constituency within United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations and meetings. Following this theoretical presentation, Allan uses chapters 4–6 to walk readers through the attempts of labour, gender, climate justice, health, and human rights NGOs to expand into the climate change governance regime using cohesion, alliance building, and rule leveraging.
An understated takeaway from Allan’s empirical case studies in these chapters is the demonstration that NGOs are more conservative in political action as a constituency than scholars may conventionally consider. For example, in all the cases presented, Allan discusses hesitancy from many core NGOs in climate regime groups to expand membership—especially when new members may rock the boat, create competition, or buck rules of conduct within the UNFCCC. This is best demonstrated in the case of climate justice, where Climate Justice Now! (CJN!) was loudly and publicly critical of the UN Development Programme and UN Environment Programme, leaving them few possible allies within the climate change governance regime. In this case, Friends of the Earth played a key role as a broker in facilitating acceptance of CJN! by other NGOs in the regime.
The parsimony of Allan’s theory and detailed case study opens the door for exciting possibilities to extend our knowledge of this research area. For example, Allan’s theory of the conditions necessary for forum multiplying could be empirically testing using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) or process tracing methods. Allan also leaves open the possibility that this phenomenon could occur with many different types of regimes and among different levels of power or agency within a regime.
Amid the strength of the theory and case studies, I was left with one unsettled issue. While the theoretical description of what makes a successful or unsuccessful instance of forum multiplying seems quite clear, the application of this criteria seems murkier to carry out in practice. For instance, Allan provides the case of health NGOs attempting to join the climate change regime, and the evidence that it was not a successful forum multiplying campaign is essentially inconsistent involvement from health NGO groups and less coherent messaging around health and climate change. In the success cases—labour unions and women’s rights—the success seems to be measured by the consistent use of frames and the regularity of these issues on meeting agendas. In these cases, it seems that criteria to define success seems to have some overlap with conditions necessary to generate success (especially regarding coherence). A clearer criterion for success would allow for this theory to be studied across more contexts.
Overall, Allan makes an important contribution to the study of international organizations, and this book provides an important advance in understanding the political motives, actions, and alliances of non-state actors within IR. For scholars looking to learn about or teach IR from beyond the level of the state, The New Climate Activists offers a compelling theory with interesting and timely examples, and generates a wealth of additional research questions to explore.