Knowing your audience: How the structure of international relations and organizational choices affect amnesty international’s advocacy

• Published in: Review of International Organizations Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 29 - 58
• Main Authors: Hendrix, Cullen S., Wong, Wendy H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.03.2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Advocacy; Amnesties; Audiences; Economics; Human rights; International relations; Native rights; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Nonprofit organizations; Political activism; Political Science; Social Sciences; Studies; International non-government organizations; P45; Trade; D73; Human rights; Amnesty International; Arms transfers; L31
• ISSN: 1559-7431; 1559-744X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11558-013-9175-z

While research has addressed the effects of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) advocacy on human rights outcomes, less is known about how INGOs choose advocacy targets and tactics. We combine insights from political economy and constructivism to understand how INGOs come to choose targets and tactics through the concepts of information and leverage politics, first articulated by Keck and Sikkink ( 1998 ), and salience politics, or the need to select cases that energize organization members and donors. INGOs select potential targets for advocacy and choose their tactics based on considerations of leverage potential and political salience, both of which are a function of potential target states’ aid, trade, and security linkages with major Western powers. Using data on Amnesty International’s written advocacy efforts - background reports, press releases, and new data on Urgent Actions - we find robust evidence that Amnesty International accounts for these linkages with Western powers in choosing targets for its advocacy campaigns.