| Since 1995 over 1,700 different NGOs have found ways to engage the WTO. They have submitted unsolicited amicus briefs and attended ministerial conferences en masse, disrupting the organization and aggravating its membership. They have also submitted over 460 position papers and participated in numerous WTO-sponsored symposia. In spite of these observations, very little is actually known about this overall group of NGOs: what causes do they represent and why do they do what they do? The state-centered emphasis of traditional international relations theory struggles to answer these questions. As an alternative, this dissertation seeks answers by profiling these NGOs and utilizing social movement theory in a multi-level framework to explore their motivations. Are these NGOs responding to the political opportunities at the WTO to defend critical interests, or are they merely using the WTO to help attract additional resources to their cause?... |
