Publications
“Chicken Dance (Off): Competing Cultural Diplomacy in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest,” International Journal of Cultural Policy, July 2020 online.
Abstract
Cultural diplomacy is often described as one tool in a nation’s diplomatic toolbox. But the term ‘cultural diplomacy’ encompasses many different activities. Which of these are pursued, why, and with what consequences, are important, yet often ignored questions. Using the 2018 and 2019 Eurovision Song Contests as a case study, this article explores Israel’s attempts to instrumentalize the privately-run music competition for cultural diplomacy purposes. By exalting cultural icons and connecting them publicly to their home country officials attempt to transfer the positive associations foreigners have with the cultural act to the nation as a whole. However, I posit that this cultural policy instrument is used reactively rather than strategically, and that it ignores potential negative consequences, for example a legitimization and publication of opposing forces, in this case the Palestinian cultural boycott of Israel.
“LGBT Issues and Intergovernmental Organizations,” with Jamie Campbell, in Oxford Encyclopedia of LGBT Politics and Policy. 2019.
Summary
Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and international institutions have proliferated since the end of World War II. This development has changed the landscape of international relations not only for states, but also for nongovernmental organizations and social movements.
The advocacy of international nongovernmental organizations (INGO) plays a central role in pushing IGOs and their member states toward action. INGOs’ success in doing so depends on a number of factors, opportunity prime among them. Political opportunity structures (the institutional arrangements and resources available for political and social mobilization) determine lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) INGO access to power holders and thus their chances of bringing their concerns, and possible solutions to those concerns, to IGOs. The opportunity structures vary significantly from one IGO to the next. For example, the political opportunity structure offered by the European Union (EU) has been favorable to LGBT activism, while the United Nations is much less open to comprehensive inclusion of LGBT and sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE) human rights.
As LGBT issues move onto an IGO’s agenda, a symbiotic relationship develops between the IGO and advocacy organizations. The changing opportunity structures influence NGOs’ structure, strategy, and resource mobilization. Coordination between advocacy groups with similar goals becomes easier when many organizations have physical offices at IGOs. For diplomats and bureaucrats working at the IGO or national representative offices, INGOs can be beneficial, too. In particular, advocacy organizations are experts and purveyors of information. However, the interdependence between INGOs and IGOs has the potential of silencing voices that do not neatly fit into the internationalist, liberal rights-based discourse.
Besides the political opportunity structures in IGOs, the frames INGOs use to advocate for issues have been found to be essential for campaign success. One tactic that often constitutes successful framing is the grafting of issues to existing norms. In the LGBT context, the frames proposed by activists include human rights, health (specifically HIV-AIDS), and women and gender.
International institutions assure that similar issues will be politicized in multiple countries. In order to meaningfully affect domestic populations, the policy needs to translate to the local level through norm diffusion. The mechanisms of diffusion include material inducement (e.g., conditions for membership), learning, and acculturation and socialization.
"Pink Links: Visualizing the Global LGBTQ Network," with Megan Osterbur, in Susan Burgess, Marla Brettschneider, and Cricket Keating (eds.) LGBTQ Politics: A Critical Reader" NYY Press. 2017.
Abstract
Scholars of comparative LGBTQ politics have examined the transnational advocacy network (TAN) by studying a variety of issue campaigns. While this previous research illustrates the importance of the TAN in achieving policy change, a lacuna remains in understanding the shape of the network itself. Connections within and across regions remain unknown. This chapter aims to fill this research gap using hyperlink analysis to generate a network map of regional and global LGBTQ organizations. Examining the shape of the resulting networks we expect that LGBTQ organizations will be nationally and regionally clustered while international organizations with a broad platform of human rights will be the central ties that connect regional clusters. This comports with previous scholarship on the shift from a civil rights frame to a human rights frame and suggests that international non-governmental organizations serve as conduits between global north.
“A Hegemon Fighting For Equal Rights: the Dominant Role of the COC Nederland in the LGBT Transnational Advocacy Network,” with Megan Osterbur, Global Networks Volume 17(2): 234–254, April 2017.
Abstract
Networks are alternatives to hierarchical organizational forms. But actors in networks have different levels of resources at their disposal, and more powerful participants will try to influence the network as a whole. We identify a dominant node in the European LGBTQ advocacy network, and explore whether a hegemonic actor in the transnational advocacy network will affect less powerful groups’ issue framing. Our project uses software that locates the issue network on the Internet, highlighting how inextricably connected transnational advocacy work and digital communication have become. We confirm that COC Nederland has higher-than average centrality measures in the LGBT network. Noting the limitations of hyperlink analysis, we conduct a content analysis of select nodes illustrating the impact of a hegemon. We focus on marriage equality and find tentative support for our hypothesis: organizations with links to COC advocate for stronger forms of legalized same sex union than organizations without ties.
"Swan song: Transnational advocacy networks and environmental policy in Chile – The case of the Cisnes de Cuello Negro" with Michael Huelshoff, Interest Groups and Advocacy, Vol 1 Issue 2 October 2012
Executive Summary
Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) are receiving increased attention in the international relations literature. One central interest has addressed the efforts of local activists to circumvent hostile domestic governments by appealing abroad (the ‘boomerang hypothesis’). When success in the domestic policy process is denied to civil society actors, they reach out to international partners who in turn pressure the local government. In the parlance of the policy making literature, they ‘venue shop’. These outsiders may be foreign governments, intergovernmental organizations or international non-governmental organizations. Previous studies indicate that international actors can be powerful advocates for local causes who make success of the TAN more likely. This article assesses the boomerang hypothesis by focussing on the network that arose in response to the near-extermination of black-necked swans in the Carlos Anwandter Natural Sanctuary (Chile) after the opening of a pulp mill. Specifically, it explores the complicated relationship of local ‘boomerang throwers’ and international ‘boomerang recipients’. We argue that securing international participants does not guarantee TAN success. In particular, we find that involvement of governmental actors in a TAN lend power to the cause, but at the same time may dilute the mission of the TAN, leading to less-than-optimal outcomes from the perspective of the local campaign initiators. Additionally, we consider how the content of network interactions may influence its structure, which in turn affects the outcome of transnational campaigns. Finally, our research points to the difficulty of assessing success. In the present case, many local Chilean activists were disappointed that the pulp mill they held responsible for environmental damages was not shut down. At the same time, the company in question has become more responsive to demands of environmental sustainability, and the campaign raised environmental awareness in Chile. This exploratory research has important implications for academic research of TANs, as well as for practitioners working on transnational campaigns. Our data suggest caution in employing the ‘boomerang’ mechanism, especially when the international actors are governments. What returns with the boomerang may prove unsatisfying to those throwing it. Relatedly, we find that potential TAN participants must weigh existing relationships with TAN targets against the benefits of joining the TAN. More generally, these findings support the constraints on venue shopping that arise from limited information and venue stickiness. Taken together, these findings suggest a caution for those examining the density of network interactions to measure strength. The content of interactions in a network may be as important as their frequency.
"How Transnational Advocacy Networks Mobilize: Applying the Literature on Interest Groups to International Action", Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies, Volume 3, Summer 2011
Abstract
Transnational advocacy networks (TANs) receive increasing attention in international relations, but little has been written so far about the initial formation of networks and the ways concerned organizations or individuals build a transnational coalition. Difficulties of group mobilization pose a particular puzzle: Why do actors in one country organize around an issue in another country, especially when the resolution of the issue apparently benefits only local actors? When do national/international groups become active and how do local actors facilitate their mobilization? In this paper I argue that in order to get support from international organizations, local groups acting as entrepreneurs will frame the issue in a way attractive to the international organization. I apply concepts of interest group formation and mobilization to the case of the transnational advocacy network that formed in response to near-extermination of black-necked swans in the Carlos Anwandter Natural Sanctuary in southern Chile after the opening of a pulp mill in 2004.