Transnational Environmental Activism in North America: Wielding Soft Power through Knowledge Sharing?

While a majority of scholarship on the study of transnational advocacy networks ( TANs) has focused on the role of value-and-belief-sharing as these networks link activists across nations together, less has been written concerning the role of knowledge exchange among environmental nongovernmental organizations ( ENGOs) in helping effect policy change. This article examines how transnational coalitions of ENGOs in North America have helped shape environmental policy across the Canada- U.S.- Mexico borders. In the paper, I explore two cases of nonstate actor mobilization: the North American Pollutant Release, and Transfer Registry Project and the Citizen Submission on Enforcement Matters. In this article, I bridge notions of 'soft power' with scholarship on knowledge sharing, thereby showing that nonstate actors use it as a model to build stronger transnational coalitions, effecting pressure on industry and intergovernmental actors, and provide policy input in environmental decision making across borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]