Date of Award
Summer 7-11-2025
Document Type
Campus Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Global Governance and Human Security
First Advisor
Stacy VanDeveer
Second Advisor
Margaret Karns
Third Advisor
Maria Ivanova
Abstract
The global plastic pollution crisis has intensified calls for coordinated action and new approaches to environmental governance. This dissertation explores how narrative strategies function as tools of influence, legitimacy, and coalition-building in international treaty negotiations, focusing on the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) process for a global plastics treaty. Using the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF), the study analyzes how state and nonstate actors construct strategic narratives to define the plastic problem, assert justice claims, and shape treaty ambition.
Drawing from content analysis of 686 negotiation documents and elite interviews, the research reveals that narrative operates as a distinct form of soft power. State actors employed the Solidarity Shift to frame themselves as moral leaders, either by advocating on behalf of vulnerable groups or by invoking their own experience of harm to justify leadership. Nonstate actors used the Angel Shift to position themselves as collaborative experts, visionary guides, or frontline defenders, expanding the treaty discourse to include labor, health, gender, and systemic transformation.
The findings demonstrate how narrative strategy enables both state and nonstate actors to shape legitimacy, advance procedural justice, and influence treaty design, even without formal authority. The research extends the NPF to multilateral negotiations and introduces the concept of a Life Cycle Just Transition, linking downstream harms with upstream economic vulnerabilities. Narrative strategy emerges as a powerful global governance tool, capable of revealing political dynamics and supporting more inclusive, just, and effective environmental agreements.
Recommended Citation
Hassey, Margaret, "Narratives and Negotiations: Insights from the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee Process for Plastic Using the Narrative Policy Framework" (2025). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. 1083.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/1083
Comments
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