Limits of the Transnational Advocacy Networks: Some Notes on the “Boomerang Effect” and Time Factor

Abstract

The Transnational Advocacy Networks (TAN) consisting of states, international organizations, and NGOs have successfully applied pressure on several countries by relying on the so-called “boomerang effect.” However, it is difficult for the TAN to achieve the desired effect when the targeted country simply pretends to have internalized the agreed norms without actually observing them――I call this kind of duplicitous behavior “as if action”. This phenomenon happens because, as IR scholars see as usual, breaking the international agreement often happens in real politics, but sometime we see the phenomenon that one state does not implement the agreement without declaration of breaking.

By reviewing the activities of the human rights NGOs in the OSCE, this study seeks to explain how their function has changed since the end of the Cold War and how critics are currently trying to circumscribe the TAN’s activities. In doing so, this study advances a hypothesis that “as-if” action must be still good because, to a considerable extent, it does create the desired effect: this effect does not subside with the passage of time as fast as the “boomerang effect.”