Transnational advocacy networks are central to the diffusion of human rights norms. Although local activists, advocates and organizations are important actors in these networks, the links between domestic networks and transnational networks have received relatively little attention. Based on over 400 hours of field research, this talk will examine domestic networking among advocates working to expand the norm of protecting refugees. I will address the goals of civil society networking for protection of refugees, analyze what factors facilitate and impede networking, examine how networking is done and how networking activities have influenced civil society actors’ approach to protection activities.

Speaker: Petrice R. Flowers
Associate Professor, The University of Hawai`i Mānoa

Petrice R. Flowers is an Associate Professor in the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa’s Political Science Department and a member of the UH Center for Japanese Studies where she teaches international relations and Japanese politics courses at the graduate and undergraduate level. Dr. Flowers is also a member of the Inter-University Center Governing Board. She attended the IUC in 1998-99 and received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota in 2002. Dr. Flowers’ first book, Refugees, Women and Weapons: International Norm Adoption and Compliance in Japan, was published by Stanford University Press in 2009. She was a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo from 2002 to 2004. Funding from the U.S. Fulbright Scholars’ Program supported Dr. Flowers’ research in Japan and Korea for her project, “Expanding Protection: Increasing Coordination of Refugee and Anti-Trafficking Policies in Japan and Korea.”