The Ashgate Research Companion to Non-State Actors

This volume collects 34 essays reviewing current understandings of qualitative and quantitative research on non-state actors, understood for the purposes of the collection as being comprised of non-governmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and transnational corporations that have a role in international regulation and coordination. The essays are presented by editor Reinalda (Radboud U. Nijmegen, the Netherlands) in five parts. The first, which includes the introduction, looks at sources of information. The second considers international roles of different types of non-state actors. Perceptions and understandings of non-state actors is the theme of the third. The fourth considers "nature and impact," including the impact of non-state actors on processes within or related to international bureaucracies; the nature of agenda setting and decision making within non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations; and the nature of policy implementation, accountability, and dispute settlement in relation to non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations. The final theme is "separate worlds," including the separate worlds of humanitarian aid, human rights, and global security; the separate worlds of global North and global South; and the separate worlds of health, trade, and the environment. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Bob Reinalda is a Researcher in Political Science at Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. He has written a history of international organizations between 1815 and 2009, covering both intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. He has also co-edited studies about autonomous policy making by, decision making within, and implementation by international organizations (with Bertjan Verbeek and Jutta Joachim). He is currently preparing a biographical dictionary of secretaries-general of intergovernmental organizations.