نویسنده: Ahmad Reza Babaei - چهارشنبه ٥ آبان ۱۳۸٩
Several factors are responsible for the growing clout of the INGOs. The United Nations Organization has granted recognition and given a consultative status to numerous NGOs. The ongoing process of globalization has questioned the supremacy of the nation-state and created greater space for non-state actors. Consequently, there has been a significant rise in the potential of INGOs to promote world peace through a multiplicity of modalities. The present dissertation seeks to explore this potential by focusing on the following major INGOs: Red Cross and Red Crescent, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace. The broad conceptual framework of the inquiry is derived from the theory of complex interdependence.
The above-mentioned organizations have been chosen because of their differences rather than their similarities. Though Red Cross and Red Crescent societies form part of the same movement, they function in diverse religious and cultural contexts. Each INGO comes from a different region of the world, and has distinctive aims and capabilities. Every organization has a unique relationship with the international community. The age, size, resource pool and scope of these INGOs are unequal. Furthermore, they offer different but complementary components of a long-term and viable peace strategy which is the central concern of this inquiry.
The relationship between states and INGOs is complex. Governments around the world try to cope with the challenges posed by these organizations through various tactics including exclusion, expulsion, confrontation and cooptation. The INGOs in turn respond by deploying innovative strategies based on a pragmatic mix of pressure politics and conditional cooperation that they deploy in various forums created by them or made available by the UNO. Their effective use of new techniques and technologies of communication to create public awareness and influence the policy process is particularly commendable. Their independence, capacity for creative thinking, as also their penchant for identifying and coming up with feasible solutions to complex global problems give them an edge over sclerotic governmental bureaucracies that are often controlled by vested interests.
The above-mentioned organizations have been chosen because of their differences rather than their similarities. Though Red Cross and Red Crescent societies form part of the same movement, they function in diverse religious and cultural contexts. Each INGO comes from a different region of the world, and has distinctive aims and capabilities. Every organization has a unique relationship with the international community. The age, size, resource pool and scope of these INGOs are unequal. Furthermore, they offer different but complementary components of a long-term and viable peace strategy which is the central concern of this inquiry.
The relationship between states and INGOs is complex. Governments around the world try to cope with the challenges posed by these organizations through various tactics including exclusion, expulsion, confrontation and cooptation. The INGOs in turn respond by deploying innovative strategies based on a pragmatic mix of pressure politics and conditional cooperation that they deploy in various forums created by them or made available by the UNO. Their effective use of new techniques and technologies of communication to create public awareness and influence the policy process is particularly commendable. Their independence, capacity for creative thinking, as also their penchant for identifying and coming up with feasible solutions to complex global problems give them an edge over sclerotic governmental bureaucracies that are often controlled by vested interests.