ABSTRACT
For scholars of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in international relations (IR), the subject of state–NGO relations has been unavoidable. Challenging the state-centric history of the field, research on NGOs in IR has proceeded in two broad waves. In the 1990s, scholars within the first wave directly challenged the dominant focus on states as actors and demonstrated that NGOs influenced both state policy and social practice. Starting in the early 2000s, a second wave of NGO research has taken up a broad array of topics, including the varieties of relationships that NGOs and states can enjoy (Stroup and Wong 2016). Today, states are rarely the sole focus of IR scholarship even as scholars recognize their central role in global politics. For NGOs, the state can be a key regulator, a source of revenue, a target for policy change, a partner in international action, or some mix of the above.
