2 Chi J Intl L 389
Daniel C. Thomas

After summarizing the nature and activities of international NGOs, this paper responds to the two principal forms of skepticism typically engendered by their increasing salience in international diplomacy. First, I rebut the analytical claim that NGOs are like the background noise of world politics -- present, and perhaps annoying, but inconsequential. I then contest the normative claim that the activity of NGOs threatens the processes of popular accountability that sustain representative democracy. Instead, I argue that NGOs have been effective in helping to place certain conditions on the exercise of state sovereignty, and that this effect has advanced, rather than undermined, democratic values worldwide. However inconvenient this development may sometimes be in the short-term, the American people and government should recognize that the spread of international NGOs is helping to create an international order that is consistent with America's long term interests in the rule of law and respect for human rights throughout the international system.