>>>>Dean Grillot: So now that we've examined international governmental organizations and
the ways in which states come together to collectively solve common problems, let's
take a look at non-governmental organizations and the ways that individuals and collections
of individuals can come together and solve global problems. So nongovernmental organizations
and the ways in which they network together do make a difference in the global community.
There are tens of thousands of these organizations, maybe even more throughout the global community,
that are concerned about all kinds of issues. Individual issues or anything as broad as
human security, to specific issues, like, let's say landmines. We'll talk a little bit
about that later. But these types of these organizations are part of what we might call
global civil society-- a global citizenry that bands together as nongovernmental entities
to solve common problems. So how and why do these types of organizations, nongovernmental
organizations, even come about in today's global community? Now these aren't new organizations.
We've seen nongovernmental organizations emerge for quite some time, but really in the last
20 or so years, we've seen a huge leap forward in the amount of activity among nongovernmental
organizations. This, of course, is largely due to the Internet and the ease with which
we can now share information and of course travel around the world to see things firsthand.
We can see problems firsthand. So as more and more global citizens have traveled around
the world and noticed problems that they are concerned about, they reach out to others
and they create collectives. They create these organizations that work to try and solve it,
either in partnership with governments or perhaps in opposition to governments, depending
on the situation and the problem. We call these people social entrepreneurs; people
that are very entrepreneurial in nature, but are doing so for a social cause, for a social
good. They see some sort of problem, and they want to address it, and so they do so by reaching
out and asking for others to join with them and come together to try and pressure governments
in many different ways: through lobbies, through writing letters, through protest even. There
are lots of different ways in which nongovernmental organizations can actually make a difference.
We'll talk about that in a minute. But these nongovernmental organizations have grown in
number and scale and importance as more and more global citizens are traveling the world
and communicating with one another easily every day. So let's talk a little bit about
specifically what these nongovernmental organizations do and particularly when nongovernmental organizations,
different organizations come together in a network to solve a particular problem. First
of all, these organizations-- it's critical that they raise awareness about the problem
that they see, that the issue that they're concerned about, that they raise awareness
and make sure that people are, are knowledgeable about a human rights crisis or some sort of
environmental concern or health epidemic or whatever it is. They're raising awareness
about that issue. In order to raise awareness, they're using stories, personal stories usually,
of people that have been affected by certain cases. So let's go back to this this issue
of landmines and an organization called the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. They
would tell stories about landmine survivors and how those survivors and those interested
in trying to prevent future landmine injuries would come together, network together in various
organizations working hand-in-hand, like with the Red Cross or Amnesty International or
Human Rights Watch, working together in a network to raise awareness about this particular
issue: People being injured by landmines years after war is over, years after landmines have
actually been placed in the ground. So this is an excellent example of how an organization
works together, how individuals work together collectively in an organization, in a network,
in order to raise awareness and use stories, personal stories, that will create a sense
of urgency about that particular issue. Nongovernmental organizations and networks also leverage celebrity,
let's say. They'll use powerful individuals to tell their stories as well. So in the case
of landmines if you remember Princess Diana, she was an advocate for de-mining. And so
they would use her leverage, her celebrity and her power, her public persona to raise
awareness about this issue. Today other individuals such as Al Gore, for example, are interested
in environmental concerns and are using their power and celebrity to try and raise awareness
and tell the stories about why we should address environmental concerns. So they raise awareness,
they tell stories, they leverage power and celebrity. And finally, nongovernmental organizations
and networks work together to hold governments and states accountable. They hold them accountable
for what they say they're going to do. They take a look at what governments have signed
in terms of treaties and regulations and laws, and they hold them accountable. They raise
awareness about governments and whether they're complying with those laws and regulations
that they have signed onto. Or they work in collaboration with governments, to raise awareness
about other troubling governments. But they are they are focused on accountability and
making sure that people do what they say they're going to do, that states and governments do
what they say they are going to do. So raising awareness, telling the stories of those people
that are affected, using power and celebrity to their advantage, and holding others accountable
are important aspects of what nongovernmental organizations and transnational networks do
on a daily basis. Now how do these tactics make a difference? First of all, nongovernmental
organizations and transnational networks and engaging in this kind of work, help affect
agendas. They help governments to get these issues on an agenda. The International Campaign
to Ban Landmines worked very hard to get the landmine issue on the agenda for governments--
at the UN and at other organizations. It was very difficult, and so they ultimately ended
up bringing states together outside of a formal and official structure in order to make progress
in that issue area. But if there had been no International Campaign to Ban Landmines,
there wouldn't be a landmine ban today, because they got that issue on the agenda. Secondly,
nongovernmental organizations and transnational networks help to affect the positions that
governments take on these certain issues and the ways in which they discuss it. So first
they get it on the agenda, and then they have an impact on on their positions and how this
issue is discussed within the policymaking community. These organizations also affect
policies. Not just getting things on the agenda, not just affecting the way people talk about
it and what they say about these issues, but actually creating policies and treaties and
and documents that prescribe certain state behavior. They affect behavior. Once you've
raised awareness about this issue, you've gotten it on the agenda, you've affected the
way people talk about it, you've gotten them to create a policy, then you have to actually
help them implement it and make sure that they are complying with the policies that
they've created. So all of these things are ways in which nongovernmental organizations
and transnational networks actually make a difference. Once they've raised awareness,
they've told the stories, they're working to hold people accountable by doing all of
these things: setting agendas and affecting the way people talk about things, and ultimately
the way they behave. Now to be sure, some of these types of organizations are more successful
than others. I mentioned the International Campaign to Ban Landmines and other organizations
like the Cluster Munitions Coalition were successful in getting states to sign a treaty
and actually ban things like anti-personnel landmines and cluster munitions. Other types
of organizations, environmental organizations for example, have perhaps struggled a little
bit more. And there's one particular reason why, according to research that the more these
types of organizations focus on what we call bodily harm, or issues focusing on human security,
the more successful they might be. But regardless, these nongovernmental organizations and these
transnational networks are major players in the global community, regardless of how successful
they are, they're here to stay. They're here to work with states, in opposition to states,
and they clearly do make a difference in the global community.