Breaking the Ban? The Heterogeneous Impact of US Contestation of the Torture Norm

Schmidt, Averell; Sikkink, Kathryn

doi:10.1093/jogss/ogy036

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Second, the article resonates with second-generation norms research that analyses the contestation of norms and norm regimes (Lantis 2017). Studies of the forms and effects of norm contestation (Deitelhoff and Zimmermann 2020;Schmidt and Sikkink 2019;Wiener 2014) and norm localization (Acharya 2004;Betts and Orchard 2014;Zimmermann 2014) discuss how contestation, interpretation and adaption are (re-)constructing norms. This article connects the interpretative processes of norm contestation undertaken by contesting and contested actors with the authority of related institutions, actors and norms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The contestation and construction of global governance authorities: A study from the global business and human rights regime

Mende

2021

Glob. Con.

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The contestation of global governance institutions can strengthen or weaken, as well as transform, them. This article analyses the productive potential of contestation and justification of global governance institutions by examining the multiple authorities that are invoked as auxiliaries in the process. It studies the (re-)construction of these authorities by dissecting authority into three components: power, legitimacy and connection to public interests. Empirically, the article focuses on the issue area of business and human rights, examining the highly contested process of drafting a binding instrument in the United Nations Treaty Process. The analysis shows that the success of the Treaty Process not only hinges on its direct reaction to contestation, but also on its ability to (re-)construct the multiple related authorities. Ultimately, the article argues that the contestation of global governance institutions involves (re-)constructing multiple authorities. This demonstrates how contestation can also affect global governance institutions, actors and norms beyond the specific field of deliberation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The contestation and construction of global governance authorities: A study from the global business and human rights regime

Mende

2021

Glob. Con.

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“…Some observers have concluded that the norm against torture has thereby been “significantly weakened,” illustrating a process of “norm regress” that could lead to the “slow death” of the norm (McKeown, 2009: 5). Indeed, the United States did not seek simply to adjust the practice or “meaning-in-use” of the anti-torture norm but rather “struck at the core of the norm itself, in both discourse and practice” (Schmidt and Sikkink, 2019: 106). In the wake of the US challenge, “US public opinion has shifted in favor of the use of torture” (Schmidt and Sikkink, 2019: 105).…”

Section: Are Norms Really Dying?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why norms rarely die

Percy

Sandholtz

2022

European Journal of International Relations

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Significant challenges to core international norms have prompted debate over whether or not norms decay, decline, or die. We argue that claims of norm death are empirically incorrect and theoretically misleading. Norms rarely die, and the processes that happen instead are far more complex. The idea of norm death embodies two misconceptions borne out of methodological incentives in empirical constructivism; that norms are single entities that exist separately from larger structures, and that compliance is the most effective way to measure if a norm is under challenge. We argue that the literature on “norm death” epitomizes the pitfalls of this approach, and as a result neither empirically or theoretically captures what happens when norms are under challenge. Norms are fundamentally resilient and can withstand even high levels of non-compliance. We examine four cases of alleged norm death—the norms against mercenary use, unrestricted submarine warfare, and torture, and the norm requiring declarations of war—and demonstrate that in these cases norms are not disappearing, but are rather subject to processes of obsolescence, replacement, and modification. We further argue that once we recognize that norms are embedded in wider structures, and move away from the notion that compliance indicates norm strength, it is possible to see why norms are generally resilient.

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“…Thus contestation is prevalently represented as driven by actors that seek to pursue their specific interests unconstrained byrather than throughglobal norms (e.g. Bower 2019, Price 2019, Schmidt and Sikkink 2019. Although uncertainty remains as to whether contestation leads to the weakening or strengthening of existing norms, a sense that 'good' liberal norms are imperiled by 'bad' illiberal transgressors generally permeates this approach.…”

Section: Norm Dynamics Contestation and Powermentioning

confidence: 99%

Authoritarian Powers and Norm Contestation in the Liberal International Order: Theorizing the Power Politics of Ideas and Identity

Bettiza

Lewis

2020

Journal of Global Security Studies

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Are rising authoritarian powers such as China and Russia converging towards or challenging the normative structures of the liberal international order? This article argues that scholarship on norm contestation provides a fruitful theoretical avenue for addressing this question. It finds, however, that this literature has problematically tended to either overlook or externalize power dynamics from norm contestation. The article therefore proposes and develops a power political approach to norm contestation that, informed by a realpolitik sensibility, more explicitly and consistently makes power central to the analysis. A power political perspective conceptualizes norm contestation as the expression of battles for influence in world politics that take place at the ideational level and through symbolic instruments. It understands these struggles as occurring in the context of an international system profoundly marked by conflicting interests, cultural pluralism, hierarchical structures, and power asymmetries. This power political lens is then used to identify four modes of contestation that Russian and Chinese actors are engaged in: liberal performance, liberal mimicry, civilizational essentialization, and counter-norm entrepreneurship. It empirically explores how these contestatory practices express themselves at different intensity levels—applicatory, meaning, and validity—and display specific power political logics—fragmenting and integrative—with the goal of undermining the ideational hegemony of liberal Western-based actors and structures in world politics, and advancing alternative non-liberal visions of domestic and international order. Along with contributing to the literature on norms, this article also makes a broader intervention in current debates about rising powers and the future of the liberal international order.

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Breaking the Ban? The Heterogeneous Impact of US Contestation of the Torture Norm

Cited by 28 publications

References 11 publications

The contestation and construction of global governance authorities: A study from the global business and human rights regime

The contestation and construction of global governance authorities: A study from the global business and human rights regime

Why norms rarely die

Authoritarian Powers and Norm Contestation in the Liberal International Order: Theorizing the Power Politics of Ideas and Identity

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