Non-Governmental Organizations in World Politics (Global Institutions) - Softcover

Willetts, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415381258 ISBN 13: 9780415381253

Publisher: Routledge, 2010

Synopsis

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Amnesty International and Oxfam to Greenpeace and Save the Children are now key players in global politics. This accessible and informative textbook provides a comprehensive overview of the significant role and increasing participation of NGOs in world politics.

Peter Willetts examines the variety of different NGOs, their structure, membership and activities, and their complex relationship with social movements and civil society. He makes us aware that there are many more NGOs exercising influence in the United Nations system than the few famous ones.

Conventional thinking is challenged in a radical manner on four questions:

• the extent of the engagement of NGOs in global policy- making;
• the status of NGOs within international law;
• the role of NGOs as crucial pioneers in the creation of the Internet;
• and the need to integrate NGOs within mainstream international relations theory.

This is the definitive guide to this crucial area within international politics and should be required reading for students, NGO activists, and policy-makers.

About this title

About the Author:

Peter Willetts is Emeritus Professor of Global Politics at City University, London. His previous publications on NGOs include Pressure Groups in the Global System (London: Pinter, 1982) and the edited volume ‘The Conscience of the World:’ The Influence of Non-Governmental Organisations in the UN System (Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1996).

Review:

"A wise and amazingly succinct, scholarly, and highly readable analysis of the essential nature of NGOs and their increasingly prominent role in global politics. Willetts has made an insightful and constructive (in every sense) contribution to the literature on NGOs and, by extension, IR theory, international institutions, and global governance." -Yale H. Ferguson, Global Governance, Vol. 18, 2012

"A useful guide to NGOs and their roles in global politics." - Mariya Y. Omelicheva, Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 34

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0415381258
• ISBN 13: 9780415381253
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224