Revisiting Global Governance in Multistakeholder Initiatives: Club Governance Based on Ideational Prealignments

Abstract

Multistakeholder initiatives that bring together actors from the state, the business sector and society to formulate, implement and/or monitor rules governing different policy fields have assumed a prominent role in global governance since the 1980s. In the governance literature, it is generally assumed that the actors from the three sectors have diverse interests, but contribute different resources. This should allow to address transnational problems more effectively. While cooperation among the various collective actors in these initiatives might be based in part on complementary resources, we argue here that such cooperation is also shaped and conditioned by ideational prealignments of the participating actors. Such ideational prealignments are consequential, because they predetermine (1) the composition of multistakeholder forums in terms of which actors participate and which do not, (2) the processes that govern these forums, (3) the results of these forums and (4) the relations among the collective actors who participate in these forums and the stakeholders they are deemed to represent. When viewed from this perspective, multistakeholder initiatives are a form of club governance that is based on ideational factors. We illustrate this argument by drawing on research that examines the setting of standards for private military and security companies (PMSCs).

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Joakim Berndtsson, Gaard Kets, Daniel Polman, Bertjan Verbeek and the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments, and Natalia Dalmer, Pia Honerath, Debra Noe, Henriette Lange, Eva Linnenbaum, Melanie Jäger, Wiebke Pielhop, Julie Schneider and Alexandra Weber for their invaluable research support.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

About the Authors

Andrea Schneiker is Professor of Political Science at the University of Siegen, Germany. She is the author of Humanitarian NGOs, (In)Security and Identity: Epistemic Communities and Security Governance (Routledge, 2015) and co-editor of Researching Non-State Actors in International Security: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2017). Her research has been published in numerous refereed international journals such as International Studies Review, International Studies Perspectives, Disasters, Millennium, Security Dialogue, Global Policy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations and Comparative European Politics.

Jutta Joachim is Professor of International Relations at Radboud University. She received her PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MA in International Studies from the University of South Carolina. She is author of Agenda Setting, the UN, and NGOs: Gender Violence and Reproductive Rights (Georgetown University Press, 2007) and co-editor of International Organizations and Implementation: Enforcers, Managers, Authorities (Routledge, 2008) and Transnational Activism in the UN and the EU: A Comparative Study (Routledge, 2009). Articles by her have appeared in, among others, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Perspectives, The German Journal for International Relations, Security Dialogue, Millennium, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Comparative European Politics and Journal of European Public Policy. Her areas of expertise are international security, international organisations, non-state actors, and gender and international relations.

Notes

1 Deborah D. Avant, Martha Finnemore and Susan K. Sell (eds.), Who Governs the Globe? (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).

2 Margaret P. Karns, Karen A. Mingst and Kendall W. Stiles, International Organizations: The Politics and Processes of Global Governance, 3rd ed. (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2015), p. 34.

3 See, for example, Jan Martin Witte, Wolfgang H. Reinicke and Thorsten Benner, “Beyond Multilateralism: Global Public Policy Networks”, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, Vol. 2000, No. 2 (2000), pp. 176–188.

4 Eleni Tsingou, “Club Governance and the Making of Global Financial Rules”, Review of International Political Economy, Vol. 22, No. 2 (2015), pp. 225–256, here p. 231.

5 Ibid.; Mai’a K. Davis Cross, “Rethinking Epistemic Communities Twenty Years Later”, Review of International Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1 (2013), pp. 137–160.

6 Joakim Berndtsson and Maria Stern, “Private Security and the Public–Private Divide: Contested Lines of Distinction and Modes of Governance in the Stockholm-Arlanda Security Assemblage”, International Political Sociology, Vol. 5, No. 4 (2011), pp. 408–425, here p. 408; see also Rita Abrahamsen and Michael C. Williams, Security beyond the State: Private Security in International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011); Joakim Berndtsson, “Security Professionals for Hire: Exploring the Many Faces of Private Security Expertise”, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2 (2012), pp. 303–320.

7 Thomas G. Weiss and Rorden Wilkinson (eds.), International Organization and Global Governance (New York: Routledge, 2014), p. 211.

8 Karns et al., op. cit., p. 34.

9 Sébastien Mena and Guido Palazzo, “Input and Output Legitimacy of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives”, Business Ethics Quarterly, Vol. 22, No. 3 (2012), pp. 527–556, here p. 528.

10 Peter Utting, “Regulating Business via Multistakeholder Initiatives: A Preliminary Assessment”, in Voluntary Approaches to Corporate Responsibility: Readings and a Resource Guide (Geneva: UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service and United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 2002), pp. 61–126.

11 Witte et al., op. cit., p. 176.

12 Julia Steets, Accountability in Public Policy Partnerships (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 6–7.

13 Ibid.

14 For a list of multistakeholder initiatives, see, for example, Mena and Palazzo, op. cit.

15 Utting, op. cit.

16 Allen Buchanan and Robert O. Keohane, “The Legitimacy of Global Governance Institutions”, Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 20, No. 4 (2006), pp. 405–437, here p. 407.

17 Karin Bäckstrand, “Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships for Sustainable Development: Rethinking Legitimacy, Accountability and Effectiveness”, Environmental Policy and Government, Vol. 16, No. 5 (2006), pp. 290–306; Eva Lövbrand, Teresia Rindefjäll and Joakim Nordqvist, “Closing the Legitimacy Gap in Global Environmental Governance? Lessons from the Emerging CDM Market”, Global Environmental Politics, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2009), pp. 74–100.

18 Fritz W. Scharpf, “Economic Integration, Democracy and the Welfare State”, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 4, No. 1 (1997), pp. 18–36; Fritz W. Scharpf, Governing in Europe: Effective and Democratic? (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

19 Scharpf, “Economic Integration, Democracy and the Welfare State”; Scharpf, Governing in Europe.

20 Witte et al., op. cit., p. 179.

21 Klaus Dingwerth, “The Democratic Legitimacy of Public–Private Rule Making: What Can We Learn from the World Commission on Dams?” Global Governance, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2005), pp. 65–83; Witte et al., op. cit.

22 Witte et al., op. cit., p. 179.

23 Ibid.

24 Thomas Risse, “Global Governance and Communicative Action”, Government and Opposition, Vol. 39, No. 2 (2004), pp. 288–313, here p. 310.

25 Witte et al., op. cit., p. 179.

26 Witte et al., op. cit.; Tanja Börzel and Thomas Risse, “Private-Public Partnerships: Effective and Legitimate Tools of International Governance?” in E. Grande and L.W. Pauly (eds.), Complex Sovereignty: Reconstituting Political Authority in the Twenty-First Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005), pp. 195–216; Risse, op. cit.; Andreas Georg Scherer and Guido Palazzo, “The New Political Role of Business in a Globalized World: A Review of a New Perspective on CSR and Its Implications for the Firm, Governance, and Democracy”, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 48, No. 4 (2011), pp. 899–931, here p. 901.

27 Karns et al., op. cit., p. 4.

28 Mena and Palazzo, op. cit., p. 540.

29 Dingwerth, op. cit., p. 73; Utting, op. cit., p. 62; Philip G. Cerny, “Globalization and the Erosion of Democracy”, European Journal of Political Research, Vol. 36, No. 1 (1999), pp. 1–26.

30 Sandra Moog, André Spicer and Steffen Böhm, “The Politics of Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives: The Crisis of the Forest Stewardship Council”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 128 (2015), pp. 469–493, here p. 482.

31 Cerny, op. cit.

32 Mena and Palazzo, op. cit., p. 540.

33 Ibid.

34 Kenny Bruno, “Greenwash + 10: The UN’'s Global Compact, Corporate Accountability and the Johannesburg Earth Summit”, CorpWatch (2002), available: <http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1348> (accessed 20 February 2017); Utting, op. cit.

35 Leonard Seabrooke and Eleni Tsingou, “Revolving Doors and Linked Ecologies in the World Economy: Policy Locations and the Practice of International Financial Reform”, CSGR Working Paper No. 260/09 (Coventry: Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, 2009); Tsingou, op. cit.; Cross, op. cit.

36 Seabrooke and Tsingou, op. cit., p. 2.

37 Rita Abrahamsen and Michael C. Williams, “Security beyond the State: Global Security Assemblages in International Politics”, International Political Sociology, Vol. 3, No. 1 (2009), pp. 1–17, here p. 3.

38 Berndtsson and Stern, op. cit., p. 410.

39 Seabrooke and Tsingou, op. cit., p. 3; see also Cross, op. cit.; Leonard Seabrooke, “Epistemic Arbitrage: Transnational Professional Knowledge in Action”, Journal of Professions and Organization, Vol. 1, No. 1 (2014), pp. 49–64.

40 Tsingou, op. cit., p. 232.

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid., p. 231.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid., p. 232.

45 Ibid.

46 Seabrooke and Tsingou, op. cit., p. 3.

47 Witte et al., op. cit., p. 179.

48 “The Montreux Document on Pertinent International Legal Obligations and Good Practices for States Related to Operations of Private Military and Security Companies during Armed Conflict” (Geneva: Swiss Confederation, 2009), available: <https://www.eda.admin.ch/content/dam/eda/en/documents/aussenpolitik/voelkerrecht/Montreux-Broschuere_en.pdf> (accessed 20 February 2017).

49 For more information, see <http://psm.du.edu/international_regulation/global_standards_codes_of_conduct/index.html> (accessed 20 February 2017).

50 Ibid.

51 Steets, op. cit., pp. 6–7.

52 Andrea Schneiker and Elke Krahmann, “Capacity Gained – Accountability Lost? Establishing a Better Political and Regulatory Framework”, paper presented at the 52nd Munich Security Conference, 12–14 February 2016, available: <https://www.transparency.de/fileadmin/pdfs/Wissen/Publikationen/TI-D_Policy_Paper_PMSC_web.pdf> (accessed 20 February 2017).

53 Andrea Schneiker, “Die Selbstregulierung privater Sicherheits- und Militärfirmen als Instrument der Marktbeeinflussung”, Sicherheit und Frieden/Security and Peace, Vol. 26, No. 4 (2008), pp. 214–219.

54 A list of the collective actors that participated in these two initiatives and the individuals who represented them in the meetings can be found on the websites of the two initiatives.

55 Interview, 26 June 2012.

56 Interview, 6 June 2012.

57 Interview, 15 May 2012.

58 Tsingou, op. cit.

59 Ibid., p. 232.

60 Ibid.

61 Interviews, 27 February, 15 May, 6 June, 26 June, 11 July 2012.

62 Interviews, 17 February, 26 June 2012.

63 Chris Greyling, Doug Brooks and Andrew Bearpark, “Industry Statement”, available: <https://business-humanrights.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/industry-pmsc-code-30-sep-2010.pdf> (accessed 20 February 2017).

64 Interview, 27 February 2012.

65 Brooks, as cited in International Peace Institute, “Transcript Forum on Regulating Private Security Companies” (New York: International Peace Institute, 2009), available: <http://www.ipinst.org/images/docs/beyond-market-forces-transcript-final.pdf> (accessed 20 February 2017). See also interviews, 15 May, 26 June 2012.

66 Interview, 6 June 2012.

67 Interviews, 15 May, 26 June 2012.

68 Interviews, 26 April, 26 June 2012.

69 Interview, 15 May 2012; see also interview, 26 April 2012.

70 Benjamin, as cited in Codepink, “CODEPINK Protests at DC-Based Private Security Group to Condemn Blackwater and Call for Its Expulsion from Iraq” (WarIsACrime.org, 2007), available: <http://warisacrime.org/node/26969> (accessed 20 February 2017 [expired]).

71 Codepink, “Tell Hillary Clinton: Stop Doing Business with Blackwater” (Change.org, 2010), available: <https://www.change.org/p/tell-hillary-clinton-stop-doing-business-with-blackwater> (accessed 20 February 2017).

72 War on Want, “Stop the Privatization of War” (London: War on Want, 2010), available: <http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/corporations-and-conflict/private-armies> (accessed 18 November 2010 [expired]).

73 War on Want, “Private Military & Security Contractors: A Culture of Impunity” (London: War on Want, 2012), available: <http://www.waronwant.org/media/private-military-security-contractors-culture-impunity> (accessed 20 February 2017).

74 Interview, 28 August 2012.

75 Interview, 27 March 2012.

76 Ibid.

77 Ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 Interview, 26 June 2012.

80 Interview, 15 May 2012.

81 Interview, 27 February 2012.

82 Interview, 26 June 2012.

83 Interview, 6 June 2012.

84 Interview, 15 May 2012; see also interview, 6 June 2012.

85 Interview, 6 June 2012.

86 Interview, 15 May 2012.

87 Ibid.

88 Interview, 6 June 2012.

89 Interview, 15 May 2012.

90 Interview, 6 June 2012.

91 Ibid.

92 Ibid.

93 Ibid.

94 Ibid.

95 Interviews, 15 May, 13 June 2012.

96 Interview, 15 May 2012.

97 In 2010 this organisation was renamed the International Stability Operations Association (ISOA).

98 Doug Brooks, “Private Military Service Providers: Africa’'s Welcome Pariahs”, Nouveaux Mondes, No. 10 (2002), available: <http://www.hoosier84.com/02-00africaswelcomepariahs.pdf> (accessed 20 February 2017); see also Doug Brooks, “Friedensmissionen als Geschäft”, interview, Deutsche Welle, 6 August 2003, available: <http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,940789,00.html> (accessed 20 February 2017).

99 Doug Brooks, “Success at Montreux”, Journal of International Peace Operations, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2009), pp. 4, 6.

100 Interview, 6 June 2012.

101 Ibid.

102 Ibid.

103 Tsingou, op. cit., p. 231.

104 Interview, 6 June 2012.

105 Interview, 11 July 2012.

106 Interview, 15 May 2012.

107 Ibid.

108 Interview, 11 July 2012.

109 Interview, 26 June 2012.

110 Interview, 15 May 2012.