24/04/2023 - Norm Diffusion Beyond the West. Agents and Sources of Leverage

Šárka Kolmašová
(Metropolitan University Prague)

Laura Trajber Waisbich
(University of Oxford)

Discussant:
Dorota Heidrich
(University of Warsaw)

Moderated by:
Anna Grzywacz
(Institute of Political Studies PAS)

DATE: 24 April 2023, 15.30–17.00 CEST
Zoom

Registration:
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Link will be sent to registered participants on the day of the webinar.

Numerous studies suggest that norm diffusion is a one-way process, in which weaker actors comply with or contest norms promoted by powerful entities, primarily by Western actors. However, during the seminar, the speakers will challenge this idea by exploring the role of regional powers in promoting and shaping global norms in areas such as human rights, democracy, and environmental protection, based on the insights from the book Norm Diffusion Beyond the West (Springer 2023). Drawing on case studies from Latin America, Africa, and Asia, the contributors examine strategies employed by regional and small powers aimed at promoting norms and the factors that enable or constrain their success. By highlighting the agency of non-Western actors in norm diffusion, the seminar hopes to offer a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of how global norms are created and spread.

Šárka Kolmašová is an assistant professor and the deputy head of the Department of International Relations and European Studies, Metropolitan University Prague. Her research interests revolve around norms, military interventions, responsibility to protect, and human rights in international politics. Šárka’s most recent publication is Advocacy Networks and the Responsibility to Protect: The Politics of Norm Circulation (Routledge 2023).

Laura Trajber Waisbich holds a PhD in geography from the University of Cambridge and currently serves as a postdoctoral fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, working on the project Politics of Accountability in South-South Development Cooperation. She has been researching political advocacy, development cooperation, social participation, and human rights for over ten years and has published numerous works on these topics.

Dorota Heidrich holds a PhD in political science and is an associate professor at the Faculty of Political Science and International Studies of the University of Warsaw. She served as the deputy director of the Institute of International Relations from 2016 to 2019. Her research focuses on forced migration, transitional justice, international organisations, and the diffusion of norms in international relations. She has published numerous works analysing these topics.

Anna Grzywacz is an assistant professor at the Institute of Political Studies of Polish Academy of Sciences, Poland. Her research interests include ASEAN and Southeast Asian politics. Her recent works appear in the Pacific Review, Third World Quarterly, and Media, War & Conflict.

Reference
Šárka Kolmašová and Ricardo Reboredo (eds.) Norm Diffusion Beyond the West.
Agents and Sources of Leverage, Springer, 2023, https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-25009-5