Implementation and World Politics

How International Norms Change Practice

Edited by Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard

Original conceptual framework for thinking about implementation in world politics
Includes empirical cases from a wide-range of policy fields

Implementation and World Politics

How International Norms Change Practice

Edited by Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard

Description

A significant amount of International Relations scholarship examines the role of international norms in world politics. Existing work, though, focuses mainly on how these norms emerge and the process by which governments sign and ratify them. In conventional accounts, the story ends there. Yet, this tells us very little about the conditions under which these norms actually make any difference in practice. When do these norms actually change what happens on the ground? In order to address this analytical gap, the book develops an original conceptual framework for understanding the role of implementation in world politics. It applies this framework to explain variation in the impact of a range of people-centred norms relating to humanitarianism, human rights, and development.

The book explores how the same international norms can have radically different effects in different national and local contexts, or within particular organizations, and in turn how this variation can have profound effects on people's lives. How do international norms change and adapt at implementation? Which actors and structures matter for shaping whether implementation actually takes place, and on whose terms? And what lessons can we derive from this for both International Relations theory and for international public policy-makers? Collectively, the chapters explore these themes by looking at three different types of norms - treaty norms, principle norms, and policy norms - across policy fields that include refugees, internal displacement, crimes against humanity, the use of mercenaries, humanitarian assistance, aid transparency, civilian protection, and the responsibility to protect.

Implementation and World Politics

How International Norms Change Practice

Edited by Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard

1. Introduction: The Normative Institutionalization-Implementation Gap, Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard
Part I: Treaty Norms
2. From Persecution to Deprivation: How Refugee Norms Adapt at Implementation, Alexander Betts
3. Transnational Advocacy and Accountability: From Declarations of Anti-Impunity to Implementing the Rome Statute, Michael Bluman Schroeder and Alana Tiemessen
4. The Unimplemented Norm: Anti-Mercenary Law and the Problems of Institutionalization, Sarah Percy
5. International NGOs and the Implementation of the Norm for Need-Based Humanitarian Assistance in Sri Lanka, Urvashi Aneja
Part II: Principled Norms
6. Implementing a Global Internally Displaced Persons Protection Regime, Phil Orchard
7. Implementing the 'Responsibility to Protect': Catalyzing Debate and Building Capacity, Jennifer M. Welsh
8. China as a Global Norm-Shaper: Institutionalization and Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect, Brian L. Job and Anastasia Shesterinina
9. Peacekeeping in the Congo: Implementation of the Protection of Civilians Norm, Emily Paddon
Part III: Policy Norms
10. Engineering Policy Norm Implementation: The World Bank's Transparency Transformation, Catherine Weaver and Christian Peratsakis
11. From Principle to Policy: The Emergence, Implementation and Re-Articulation of the Right to Post-Conflict Property Repossession, Miriam Anderson
12. The Implementation of 'Integrated Approaches' in the UN System: Lessons from Tanzania and Burundi, James Milner
13. Institutionalizing and Implementing the Disaster Relief Norm: The League of Red Cross Societies and the International Relief Union, Scott D Watson
14. Status Determination and Recognition, Anna Schmidt
15. Conclusions: Norms and the Politics of Implementation, Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard

Implementation and World Politics

How International Norms Change Practice

Edited by Alexander Betts and Phil Orchard

Author Information

Alexander Betts, Associate Professor, Department of International Development,, University of Oxford,Phil Orchard, Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations, School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland

Alexander Betts' research focuses on the international politics of refugees, migration, and humanitarianism, with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. His recent books include Forced Migration and Global Politics (2009), Protection by Persuasion: International Cooperation in the Refugee Regime (2009), Refugees in International Relations (with Gil Loescher, 2010), Global Migration Governance (2011), UNHCR: The Politics and Practice of Refugee Protection (with Gil Loescher and James Milner, 2012), and Survival Migration: Failed Governance and the Crisis of Displacement (2013). He has worked as a consultant to UNHCR, OCHA, UNDP, IOM, UNICEF, and the Council of Europe. He has also held teaching and research positions at Stanford University, the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, and the University of Texas at Austin. He is Director of the Refugee Studies Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford.

Phil Orchard holds a PhD from the University of British Columbia, and previously worked as the Assistant to the Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Internally Displaced Persons. His research focuses primarily on international efforts to provide institutional and legal forms of protection to civilians and forced migrants. He is the author of A Right to Flee: Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation (2014). His work has been published in Global Governance, International Affairs, and the Review of International Studies, among other journals. He is Lecturer in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, where he directs the Masters in International Studies program, and a Research Associate with the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

Contributors:

Miriam Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Memorial University
Urvashi Aneja is an Associate Professor at the Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) at the OP Jindal Global University (JGU), India
Alexander Betts is Director of the Refugee Studies Centre and Associate Professor in the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford.
Brian L. Job is Professor of Political Science and currently Associate Director, Institute of Asian Research, University of British Columbia.
James Milner is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Phil Orchard is a Lecturer in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, where he directs the Masters in International Studies program, and a Research Associate with the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.
Dr. Emily Paddon is the Rose Research Fellow in International Relations at Lady Margaret Hall, and Associate Faculty at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.
Christian Peratsakis is a Technical Associate at Development Gateway, a non-profit at the intersection of technology and international development.
Sarah Percy is Professor of International Relations at the University of Western Australia.
Dr. Anna Schmidt currently works for the European Union as Governance and Security Advisor for Somalia.
Michael Bluman Schroeder is Professorial Lecturer & Interim Director of the Global Governance, Politics and Security Program (GGPS), a graduate program at American University's School of International Service.
Anastasia Shesterinina is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Political Science and Liu Scholar at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.
Alana Tiemessen is presently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
Catherine Weaver is Associate Professor at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, USA.
Scott Watson is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria.
Jennifer M. Welsh is Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, and a Fellow of Somerville College.