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In Borders among Activists, Sarah S. Stroup challenges the notion that political activism has gone beyond borders and created a global or transnational civil society. Instead, at the most globally active, purportedly cosmopolitan groups in the world—international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs)—organizational practices are deeply tied to national environments, creating great diversity in the way these groups organize themselves, engage in advocacy, and deliver services.
Stroup offers detailed profiles of these "varieties of activism" in the United States, Britain, and France. These three countries are the most popular bases for INGOs, but each provides a very different environment for charitable organizations due to differences in legal regulations, political opportunities, resources, and patterns of social networks. Stroup's comparisons of leading American, British, and French INGOs—Care, Oxfam, Médecins sans Frontières, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and FIDH—reveal strong national patterns in INGO practices, including advocacy, fund-raising, and professionalization. These differences are quite pronounced among INGOs in the humanitarian relief sector, and are observable, though less marked, among human rights INGOs.
Stroup finds that national origin helps account for variation in the "transnational advocacy networks" that have received so much attention in international relations. For practitioners, national origin offers an alternative explanation for the frequently lamented failures of INGOs in the field: INGOs are not inherently dysfunctional, but instead remain disconnected because of their strong roots in very different national environments.
Sarah S. Stroup is Associate Professor of Political Science at Middlebury College. She is the author of Borders among Activists, also from Cornell.
"Sarah Stroup's excellent new book shows that such convergence claims are overblownat least if humanitarian and human rights INGOs are any measure.... OverallStroup's book is a much-needed corrective to the too-easy assumption that a "global civil society" is emerging. Borders among Activists helps initiate an important new area of studyon the "varieties of activism".... Stroup’s careful analysis offers a reliable conceptual and methodological guide to tackling the issue." — Clifford Bob"
Lili Wang:
"A main strength of the book is its research design. While most studies of INGO's apply single case study method, the cross- and within-country comparative case analysis method sets a precedence for future studies. With this well-rounded research design and a sound analytical framework, Stroup makes a compelling case of national influence on INGOs. Academics and scholars in the fields of NGO studies, international development and global politics would find this book particularly interesting. The detailed case analyses of organizational strategies and practices may also help INGO leaders design programs and adopt practices that fit both national and global context."
Sidney Tarrow, author of The New Transnational Activism:
"In the hullabaloo over the birth of a 'global civil society' over the last two decades, it was often forgotten that most civil society organizations that operate internationally have deep ties to national roots. In an elegantly crafted book based on original evidence from a study of British, American and French humanitarian and human rights groups, Sarah S. Stroup shows how their national origins affect their organizations and strategies. These ties not only make international convergence unlikely but also help to explain their frequently lamented failures in the field. This book deserves a prominent place among the classics in the field of transnational activism."
Aseem Prakash, University of Washington, Seattle:
"Borders Among Activists is an outstanding book examining the role of national environments in shaping political strategies of international NGOs. The theoretical argument is novel and the empirical evidence compelling. It is a must-read for scholars studying NGOs and activist groups, as well as the broader political changes associated with globalization."
Michael Barnett, George Washington University, author of Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism:
"In Borders among Activists, Sarah S. Stroup argues that domestic national factors play a significant role in shaping the structures and activities of international nongovernmental organizations. This 'sociology of activism' is an important and original argument that runs counter to the current hunch that global forces are causing NGOs to adopt similar characteristics, strategies, and goals. Stroup convincingly makes her case that national forces still matter, especially when discussing the different national histories of charity and philanthropy."
"In explaining how national environments mold INGOs, Stroup provides important insights into the strengths and limitations of these entities. Borrowing from social movement scholar Sidney Tarrow, Stroup defines INGOs as rooted cosmopolitans grounded in nation-states yet striving to affirm global values. Borders among Activists should be required reading for anyone interested in navigating the sea of organizations in the age of globalization."
""OverallStroup's book is a much-needed corrective to the too-easy assumption that a "global civil society" is emerging.... Stroup's work opens the door to greater scholarly focus on the tensions within what are often claimed to be "global" movements for rights or the environment."—Clifford Bob"
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