The Importance of Non-State Actors Influencing Foreign Policy Decisions

How important are non-state actors today in influencing foreign policy decisions?

According to Crone, “policy is portrayed as set, not so much by states as unitary actors, or by markets, but by transnational networks of government and private networks, acting to coordinate policies by combinations of formal and informal collaboration, through and around institutional settings.” What this means is that an inevitable outcome of today’s globalized and interdependent world is that NSAs now possess greater power to influence foreign policy. This essay takes the stand that NSAs are indispensible and inextricable from foreign policy. The focus will be on three kinds of NSAs: IOs, powerful corporations and individuals, the media, and lastly, terrorist organizations.

IOs are involved in many areas, from the economy to the military, to politics. They function as agents and facilitators of international understanding, sources of expertise, molders of public opinion, and as pressure groups. A majority of IOs have authority because they pursue socially valued goals such as protecting or advancing human rights. Due to their bureaucratic structure, their actions are carried out by mostly rational, impartial, and non-violent means, and this makes them seem more legitimate than states that employ coercive tactics in the pursuit of selfish goals. In addition, IOs can shape public behavior by manipulating information through collection, publicity, and publication. Publications by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are widely available to the public and being labeled by any one of these organizations as a repeatedly flagrant violator of human rights forces other governments to cut back dealings with them. Some IOs like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) possess significant financial resources and the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis was an example of how states, even sizable ones like Indonesia, could be coerced into adopting policies they would otherwise not adopt in...