INTL' NGOs: What You Need to Know

09/12/23 • 33 min

International nongovernmental organizations (INGO’s) like Amnesty International, Care, Oxfam, or World Vision operate independently of governments around the world. But what do we really know about these organizations and their operations, behavior, effectiveness or limitations? What might they be doing or be unable to do, in a country like Ukraine, where many people are suffering and there are dire needs, and yet the war that Russia unleashed impedes their work?

In this episode, political scientist and INGO specialist Sarah Stroup lifts the curtain on international nongovernmental organizations to illuminate their function, efficacy, and constraints.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Outro by Arjun Kumar '25

For information on Sarah Stroup's book , Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Borders Among Activists: International NGOs in the United States, Britain, and France (Cornell University Press, 2012), visit here.

For more information on Middlebury College and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, visit here.

In this episode, political scientist and INGO specialist Sarah Stroup lifts the curtain on international nongovernmental organizations to illuminate their function, efficacy, and constraints.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

Outro by Arjun Kumar '25

For more information on Middlebury College and the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs, visit here.

Previous Episode

Israel in Crisis

For months, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens have taken to the streets to protest government plans to overhaul the judiciary—including plans that would vitiate checks on executive power, allow a simple majority of 61 in the 120-seat Knesset to override almost any ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court, and permit politicians to appoint most of the Court’s justices. Both the protests and proposed reforms take place against the backdrop of significant demographic changes which, in turn, have enhanced the power and parliamentary representation of Israel’s religious parties. Given the Knesset’s current makeup therefore, the reforms will—at least indirectly—grant the religious parties extensive influence over Israeli society.

In this episode, Middlebury College political geographer and Professor of Geosciences Tamar Mayer explains why these plans for judicial reform have pitted the government against many of its citizens, what is at stake in this crisis, and why the roots of this crisis stretch far back into Israel’s past.

SHOW NOTES:

Podcast produced by Margaret DeFoor and Mark Williams.

Outro by Middlebury student Vee Syengo ‘25

Music Credits

Forte by Kestra - Summer with Sound Album
Soul Zone by Kestra - Light Rising Album

For more information on New Frontiers podcast episodes and guests visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

Next Episode

After the Insurrection: Assessing American Democracy

On January 6, 2021, supporters of US President Donald Trump—spurred on and energized by the defeated president himself—launched a violent attack on the US capital to stop the peaceful transfer of power to president-elect Joe Biden. What are we to make of the January 6 insurrection? What does it tell us about ourselves as Americans and the state of our democracy? And with another presidential election approaching—and an indicted Donald Trump the likely Republican candidate—how might our parties, courts, and Justice Department act in ways that could safeguard democracy, or threaten it even more?

In this episode, political scientist Bert Johnson reflects on the state of American democracy, the dangers it faces, and some of the ways Americans might preserve their democratic political system.

Bert Johnson (B.A. Carleton College, 1994; Ph.D. Harvard University, 2003), professor of political science, has taught American politics at Middlebury College since 2004. His research and teaching interests include campaign finance, federalism, and state and local politics. Johnson is author of Political Giving: Making Sense of Individual Campaign Contributions (Boulder: FirstForum Press, 2013), and coauthor (with Morris Fiorina, Paul E. Peterson, and William Mayer) of The New American Democracy (Longman, 2011). His articles have appeared in Social Science History, Urban Affairs Review, and American Politics Research. He is owner and author of Basicsplainer.com.

For more information on the New Frontiers podcast visit the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs website.

SHOW NOTES:

Music Credits