| How and when do non-state actors matter? To date, the growing political salience of non-state actors has been acknowledged but not assessed. In this dissertation, I argue that non-state actors can impact international processes to the extent that they are able to leverage other key actors, adopt coercive state tools, and build support from state actors. I refract the political practices of non-state actors through the lens of state capacity, yielding insights around shifting power dynamics in the international political landscape. I provide theoretical insight into how and when non-state actors matter---without inflating their role or claiming that states have somehow faded into the background.;The 2003 conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan produced a mass humanitarian crisis that drew the attention of the international community. This dissertation is a case study of the Save Darfur Coalition, a US-based social movement that aimed to advance conflict resolution in Darfur by influencing the government of Sudan. I examine the Coalition's campaigns against indirect targets with leverage on the Sudanese government: multinational corporations, the African Union, the United States and China. The Coalition mimicked the traditional coercive tools of states---economic, military, and diplomacy---by pursuing strategies like divestment, support for peacekeeping operations, and public moral suasion. This adoption of state measures embodied a concept I call non-state statecraft, the art of conducting non-state affairs. As field research, I conducted 50 interviews with Save Darfur Coalition leadership, its international partners, activists, Sudan experts, security and human rights experts, and officials from the US Congress and the Department of State, China, and the United Nations. This dissertation contributes to debates around non-state actors in international relations by providing empirical evidence regarding theoretical claims of non-state actor capacity. |
