Contesting the International Illegitimacy of Torture: The Bush Administration's Failure to Legitimate its Preferences within International Society

Keating, Vincent Charles

doi:10.1111/1467-856x.12024

Cited by 18 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…We examine additional documents and focus on private settings where actors might be more forthcoming. Our general conclusions are similar to those reached by Keating (2014): the Bush administration's contestation of the antitorture norm did not lead to an international norm cascade in favor of its position. Our analysis, however, also identifies some additional troubling trends.…”

Section: Third-party Reactionssupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Our analysis of third-party reactions complements and extends analysis done by others, including Keating (2014). Keating examines public statements in response to US contestation of the antitorture norm to argue that the number of international actors willing to contest the torture norm increased during the Bush administration (Keating 2014, 16).…”

Section: Third-party Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 75%

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

Schmidt¹,

Sikkink²

2019

Journal of Global Security Studies

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Following the attacks of 9/11, the United States adopted a policy of torturing suspected terrorists and reinterpreted its legal obligations so that it could argue that this policy was lawful. This article investigates the impact of these actions by the United States on the global norm against torture. After conceptualizing how the United States contested the norm against torture, the article explores how US actions impacted the norm across four dimensions of robustness: concordance with the norm, third-party reactions to norm violations, compliance, and implementation. This analysis reveals a heterogeneous impact of US contestation: while US policies did not impact global human rights trends, it did shape the behavior of states that aided and abetted US torture policies, especially those lacking strong domestic legal structures. The article sheds light on the circumstances under which powerful states can shape the robustness of global norms.

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Section: Third-party Reactionssupporting

confidence: 85%

Section: Third-party Reactionsmentioning

confidence: 75%

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

Schmidt¹,

Sikkink²

2019

Journal of Global Security Studies

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“…Following the constructivist conceptualization of norms as structuring and constructed, I understand practice as both shaped by the existing norm as well as contributing to the norm's development and change (Wiener 2004;2014). For my approach to the study of norms in practice, I follow Wiener (2004;2014) in drawing on Giddens' (1979) conceptualization of social structure as the product of actions by agents who have the capacity to reflect on their actions and to act according to their intentions. I consider norm contestation to be an interactive process (Wiener 2018), and any actor who is a relevant stakeholder can potentially engage in practices of resistance and refinement.…”

Section: Norm Life Cycles and Norms In Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…To study norms in practice, I construct a theoretical framework building on the important work of scholars who have highlighted the role of discursive interventions and contestations such as protest, rejection and accusation (Wiener 2004;2014;Krook and True 2012), and more recently behavioral contestations such as inaction, ineffective implementation and acts of sabotage (Stimmer and Wisken 2019: 516;True and Wiener 2019), in how norms get constructed and evolve over time. I propose to study how contestations manifest in practice by analyzing practices of resistance, which object to the validity of the normative claim of women's right to inclusion, and practices of refinement, which engage with the circumstances under which women's inclusion should be applied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women’s Inclusion in the Malian Peace Negotiations: Norms and Practices

Lorentzen

2020

Swiss Political Sci Review

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This article studies the implementation of the global norm of women's inclusion in the Malian peace negotiations. It constructs a theoretical framework for analyzing practices of resistance, which object to the validity of the norm, and practices of refinement, which engage with the application of the norm. Based on interviews with women who attended the Malian peace negotiations it finds that women face widespread practices of resistance when they demand to be included. However, when pressure is applied concessions often follow, indicating growing acceptance of the norm. Actors also engaged in practices of refinement, observed through a number of disagreements over how, when and which women should be included. The article contributes important insights on the relationship between norms and practices by demonstrating not only that norms influence practice, but how practices of resistance and refinement shape the meanings and life cycles of norms.

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“…Internationally, states rejected the Bush administration’s revisionist narrative, in spite of the United States’ considerable power and influence (Keating 2014). Rejection prevailed even among United States’ close allies, including the United Kingdom and other European powers (Hodgson 2005: 12).…”

Section: Norm Internalisation: the Case Of The Prohibition Of Torturementioning

confidence: 99%

Norm internalisation revisited: Norm contestation and the life of norms at the extreme of the norm cascade

Iommi

2019

Glob. Con.

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Abstract:Finnemore and Sikkink’s norms life cycle model (NLCM) is a powerful heuristic device that continues to be a mandatory point of reference for theoretical and empirical scholarship on norm change. Yet the internalisation stage as conceptualised in the NLCM is problematic. Drawing from Wiener’s Theory of Contestation, this article proposes to reconceptualise the norm internalisation stage as the phase at the extreme of the norm cascade in which inherently contested norms simultaneously enjoy formal validity, social recognition, and cultural validation among stakeholders. Unlike Finnemore and Sikkink’s, this conceptualisation focuses solely on norm validity and does not assume ‘almost automatic’ compliance. While Finnemore and Sikkink emphasise habit and institutionalisation as mechanisms of internalisation, the proposed conceptualisation highlights the role of applicatory contestation under conditions of high contestedness. Furthermore, I argue that internalised norms continue to be contested. Finally, my conceptualisation explicitly incorporates norm regression as the fourth stage of the NLCM. Norms might regress because they become obsolete, they change, or they are replaced. To assess the descriptive power of the proposed conceptualisation vis-à-vis Finnemore and Sikkink’s, the article applies them to the analysis of the norm that prohibits torture.

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Contesting the International Illegitimacy of Torture: The Bush Administration's Failure to Legitimate its Preferences within International Society

Abstract: This article,

Cited by 18 publications

References 33 publications

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

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

Women’s Inclusion in the Malian Peace Negotiations: Norms and Practices

Norm internalisation revisited: Norm contestation and the life of norms at the extreme of the norm cascade

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