AbstractNon-governmental organizations (NGOs) have remained outside all the GATT rounds since the 1950s. In contrast, hundreds of NGOs have taken part in the current WTO round. This article maps the formal participation of NGOs in five ministerial conferences during the Doha round. It also analyzes various forms of NGO involvement in the WTO trade talks, such as lobbying and capacity-building of developing countries. An assessment of the current and potential capacities of NGOs in the Doha round requires that their performance be seen from an explicit negotiation perspective. Both NGO participation and involvement, as well the interaction between these two forms of NGO performance need to be considered. An assessment of how NGOs may have an impact on negotiation effectiveness and efficiency in WTO rounds should be approached from a long-term perspective and should consider other kinds of outcomes than formal final agreements. NGO performance in WTO may increase the complexity of negotiations or the significance of non-trade issues. NGO activities outside the WTO may disturb multilateral trade negotiations in the short term, such as during ongoing Ministerial Conferences. On the other hand, NGOs may also help to pave the way for constructive long-term changes in the WTO regime, which, in turn, may have a favorable impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of the overall WTO negotiation system.
The words 'power' and 'influence' are unusually frequent in literature on international politics, but despite this, these terms represent an area where intensified research still seems necessary. Power is too often considered synonymous with military power, and so certain aspects of international power have been neglected. There is little known about how power is exercised by means of non-coercive methods through the exploita tion of a non-military power base. What, for instance, are the conditions that will enable a nation to negotiate successfully about the international monetary system in the IMF and other organizations? Civil power is exercised when one nation makes another behave in accordance with its own preferences by employing only the non-military components at its power base. Civil power is a theoretical concept which only rarely exists in reality.
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