Politics of Leverage in International Relations

From campaigns against genocide to efforts against money laundering, governments, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations have attempted to change the behaviour of targeted actors through the public exposure of violations of normative standards and legal commitments. Despite the prominence of such efforts, the nature and impact of social sanction in international politics remains highly contested. This unique collection unpacks the concept and practice of naming and shaming. Drawing on a diverse range of issues and theoretical controversies in the International Relations and Human Rights literatures, the contributors to this collection explore the ways in which state and non-state actors wield public exposure as an instrument of leverage and combine it with material sanction, the contextual factors that shape these combinations, and the conditions that generate effective pressure. This volume will be of interest to students, scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in international relations, human rights, the diffusion of global norms, transnational crime, targeted sanctions, corporate social responsibility, and the dynamics of leverage in international politics.