Select Publications

2009
Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance.jpg
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2009. “The Power of Networks in International Politics.” Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance, edited by Miles Kahler, 228–47. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Used with permission.
2008
La cascada de justicia y el impacto de los juicios de derechos humanos en America Latina
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Carrie Booth Walling. 2008. “La cascada de justicia y el impacto de los juicios de derechos humanos en America Latina.” Cuadernos del CLAEH 96-97: 15-40.
Full chapter
Used with permission
Bush Administration Noncompliance with the Prohibition on Torture and Cruel and Degrading Treatment
Sikkink, Kathryn, Catherine Albisa, and Martha F. Davis. 2008. “Bush Administration Noncompliance with the Prohibition on Torture and Cruel and Degrading Treatment.” Bring Human Rights Home: From Civil Rights to Human Rights, edited by Cynthia Soohoo, 2: 187–208. Westport, CT: Praeger Publisher. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Used with permission.
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2008. “From Pariah State to Global Protagonist: Argentina and the Struggle for International Human Rights.” Latin American Politics and Society 50 (1): 1–29. Publisher's Version Abstract
Democratizing states began in the 1980s to hold individuals, including past heads of state, accountable for human rights violations. The 1984 Argentine truth commission report (Nunca Más) and the 1985 trials of the juntas helped to initiate this trend. Argentina also developed other justice-seeking mechanisms, including the first groups of mothers and grandmothers of the disappeared, the first human rights forensic anthropology team, and the first truth trials. Argentines helped to define the very term forced disappearance and to develop regional and international instruments to end the practice. Argentina thus illustrates the potential for global human rights protagonism and diffusion of ideas from a country outside the wealthy North. This article surveys Argentina's innovations and proposes possible explanations, drawing on theoretical studies from transitional justice, social movements, and norms cascades in international relations.
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Sikkink, Kathryn. 2008. “The Role of Consequences, Comparison and Counterfactuals in Constructivist Ethical Thought.” Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics, edited by Richard M. Price, 83–111. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
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International Relations.jpg
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2008. “From International Relations to Global Society.” The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, edited by Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal, 62–83. New York: Oxford University Press. Publisher's Version Abstract
Historically speaking, the study of international relations has largely concerned the study of states and the effects of anarchy on their foreign policies, the patterns of their interactions, and the organization of world politics. However, over the last several decades, the discipline as begun moving away from the study of ‘international relations’ and toward the study of ‘global society’. This shift from ‘international relations’ to ‘global society’ is reflective of several important developments that are the focus of this article. The article begins with a discussion of the anarchy thematic and what John Agnew (1994) has called ‘the territorial trap’, and surveys some of the critical forces that compelled international relations scholars to free themselves from this trap. It then explores the shifts in the what, who, how, and why of the study of international relations. It considers the terminological shift from the study of international governance to the study of global governance, justified because the purposes of global governance no longer reflect solely the interests of states but now also include other actors, including international organizations, transnational corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and new kinds of networks.
2007
Sikkink, Kathryn, and Carrie Booth Walling. 2007. “The Impact of Human Rights Trials in Latin America.” Journal of Peace Research 44 (4): 427–45. Publisher's Version Abstract
Since the 1980s, states have been increasingly addressing past human rights violations using multiple transitional justice mechanisms including domestic and international human rights trials. In the mid-1980s, scholars of transitions to democracy generally concluded that trials for past human rights violations were politically untenable and likely to undermine new democracies. More recently, some international relations experts have echoed the pessimistic claims of the early 'trial skeptics' and added new concerns about the impact of trials. Yet, relatively little multicountry empirical work has been done to test such claims, in part because no database on trials was available. The authors have created a new dataset of two main transitional justice mechanisms: truth commissions and trials for past human rights violations. With the new data, they document the emergence and dramatic growth of the use of truth commissions and domestic, foreign, and international human rights trials in the world. The authors then explore the impact that human rights trials have on human rights, conflict, democracy, and rule of law in Latin America. Their analysis suggests that the pessimistic claims of skeptics that human rights trials threaten democracy, increase human rights violations, and exacerbate conflict are not supported by empirical evidence from Latin America.
2006
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Sikkink, Kathryn, and Carrie Booth Walling. 2006. “Argentina’s Contribution to Global Trends in Transitional Justice.” Transitional Justice in the Twenty-First Century: Beyond Truth and Justice, edited by Naomi Roht-Arriaza and Javier Mariezcurrena, 301–24. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Used with permission.
2005
Patterns of Dynamic Multilevel Governance and the Insider-Outsider Coalition
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2005. “Patterns of Dynamic Multilevel Governance and the Insider-Outsider Coalition.” Transnational Protest and Global Activism, edited by Donatella Della Porta and Sidney Tarrow, 151–73. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Reproduced by permission of Rowman & Littlefield. All rights reserved. Please contact the publisher for permission to copy, distribute or reprint.
Judicialization of Politics in Latin America.jpg
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2005. “The Transnational Dimension of the Judicialization of Politics in Latin America.” The Judicialization of Politics in Latin America, edited by Rachel Sieder, Line Schjolden, and Alan Angell, 263–92. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Publisher's Version
2004
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Sikkink, Kathryn. 2004. Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Publisher's Version
2003
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Sikkink, Kathryn. 2003. “La dimensión transnacional de los movimientos sociales.” Más allá de la nación: las escalas múltiples de los movimientos sociales, edited by Elizabeth Jelin, 301–35. Buenos Aires: Libros del Zorzal. Publisher's Version
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2003. “A Typology of Relations between Social Movements and International Institutions.” Cambridge University Press 97: 301–5. Publisher's Version
2002
Handbook of International Relations.jpg
Schmitz, Hans Peter, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2002. “International Human Rights.” Handbook of International Relations, edited by Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons, 517–37. London: Sage Publications. Publisher's Version
Global Prescriptions.jpg
Sikkink, Kathryn. 2002. “Transnational Advocacy Networks and the Social Construction of Legal Rules.” Global Prescriptions: The Production, Exportation, and Importation of a New Legal Orthodoxy, edited by Yves Dezalay and Bryant Garth, 37–64. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Used with permission.
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Khagram, Sanjeev, James V. Riker, and Kathryn Sikkink, ed. 2002. Restructuring World Politics: Transnational Social Movements, Networks, and Norms. University of Minnesota Press. Minneapolis. Publisher's Version
2001
Historical Precursors to Modern Transnational Social Movements and Networks
Keck, Margaret, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2001. “Historical Precursors to Modern Transnational Social Movements and Networks.” Globalizations and Social Movements: Culture, Power, and the Transnational Public Sphere, edited by John A. Guidry, Michael Kennedy, and Mayer Zald, 35–53. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Publisher's Version
Full Chapter
Used with permission.
Lutz, Ellen, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2001. “The Justice Cascade: The Evolution and Impact of Foreign Human Rights Trials in Latin America.” Chicago Journal of International Law 2 (1): 1–33. Publisher's Version Abstract
The 1980s & 1990s saw a shift in major international trends toward enforcing international judicial procedures in an effort to hold individual political actors responsible for crimes against humanity. Further, the embrace of foreign judicial procedures resulted in a "justice cascade" that now applies to all political leaders guilty of past abuses of human rights. It is contended that this cascade of norms is the result of the efforts of a transnational justice advocacy network, comprising connected groups of activist lawyers. The justice cascade is spreading throughout Latin America & other countries, & it is predicted that foreign human rights trials will have an important domestic effect.
Used with permission.
Finnemore, Martha, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2001. “Taking Stock: The Constructivist Research Program in International Relations and Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 4: 391–416. Publisher's Version Abstract
Constructivism is an approach to social analysis that deals with the role of human consciousness in social life. It asserts that human interaction is shaped primarily by ideational factors, not simply material ones; that the most important ideational factors are widely shared or “intersubjective” beliefs, which are not reducible to individuals; and that these shared beliefs construct the interests of purposive actors. In international relations, research in a constructivist mode has exploded over the past decade, creating new and potentially fruitful connections with long-standing interest in these issues in comparative politics. In this essay, we evaluate the empirical research program of constructivism in these two fields. We first lay out the basic tenets of constructivism and examine their implications for research methodology, concluding that constructivism's distinctiveness lies in its theoretical arguments, not in its empirical research strategies. The bulk of the essay explores specific constructivist literatures and debates in international relations and comparative politics.
2000
Lutz, Ellen, and Kathryn Sikkink. 2000. “International Human Rights Law and Practice in Latin America.” International Organization 53 (4): 633–59. Publisher's Version Abstract
Human rights practices have improved significantly throughout Latin America during the 1990s, but different degrees of legalization are not the main explanation for these changes. We examine state compliance with three primary norms of international human rights law: the prohibition against torture, the prohibition against disappearance, and the right to democratic governance. Although these norms vary in their degree of obligation, precision, and delegation, states have improved their practices in all three issue-areas. The least amount of change has occurred in the most highly legalized issue-area—the prohibition against torture. We argue that a broad regional norm shift—a “norms cascade”—has led to increased regional and international consensus with respect to an interconnected bundle of human rights norms, including the three discussed in this article. These norms are reinforced by diverse legal and political enforcement mechanisms that help to implement and ensure compliance with them.

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