To Convince Strategic And International Norms Spread

Since the end of the Cold War, a large number of international norms have diffused in the international society, as manifested by the reforms in many fields such as human rights, environment protection, and so on. But the diffusion of norms has been an uneven process. The effects of norms diffusion have varied along two dimensions–participation, demonstrated by the extent to which states have signed and/or ratified the treaty on the norm; compliance, demonstrated by the general conformity to the strictures of the norm.When thoroughly examining the diffusions of the International Norm of Comprehensive Ban on Antipersonnel Mines and the International Norm of Preventing, Combating and Eradicating the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, we can find that the norm on landmines has diffused more extensively and thoroughly. What explains this variation? I develop an argument focusing on the normative persuasion strategy adopted by norm entrepreneurs. The normative persuasion strategy consists of three parts: framing, linkage and advocacy. To be specific, the international norm framed as a humanitarianism issue will diffuse more thoroughly; the international norm linked to the well-established sustaining norms will diffuse more thoroughly; the international norm advocated in the way of stimulating public emotions will diffuse more thoroughly. In a word, the normative persuasion strategy adopted by norm entrepreneurs leads to different effects of international norms diffusion. Alternative explanations, summarized as power, the intrinsic quality and the world-time context cannot explain the variation in the diffusion of the two norms above.More broadly, this dissertation suggests that to understand norms diffusion we need combine the insights of Constructivism with other theoretical perspectives. In other words, although the Constructivism has pioneered the study of norms, explaining the diffusion of norms requires bringing the Constructivism with the insights of other theories. So the dissertation contributes to promote the research agenda of norms diffusion.