ABSTRACT
The influence exerted by NGOs in several policy fields has increasingly grown and diversified. This is true not only in those issues which are traditionally associated with an organised civil society – that is to say, human rights, development, and environment – but also in respect to the most sensitive fields, dealing with security and humanitarian action, in which states and intergovernmental organisations’ (IGOs) preferences are stronger and more dominant. The perception of security has gradually changed in the last decades, in parallel to the changing nature of conflicts and crises which require more sophisticated policy responses and tools, as well as more competences.
