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Health Security Norms

Decent Essays

Finnemore and Sikkink (1998) argue that norms evolve in three stages, which they call the norm life cycle. In the first stage of norm emergence, there is a conviction that something must be changed and the “norm entrepreneurs” persuade states to adopt the norm. If a “tipping point” is reached, which is usually one-third of the states, states adopt the norm for domestic political reasons (Finnemore & Sikkink, 1998). The second stage is norm cascade where states adopt norms in response to international pressure; they do this to enhance domestic legitimacy, conformity, and esteem needs (Finnemore & Sikkink, 1998). The final stage is norm internalization in which the norms become internalized and professionals press for codification and universal …show more content…

(2015) used the norm life cycle. They argue that the revision of the International Health Regulations eventually led to the internalization of the norm (Davies et al., 2015). Nonetheless, their argument can be criticized since the level of internalization cannot be accurately measured. Even though states accept the health security norm, it is up to the states to comply. When the states do not comply, the authors claim that compliance is dependent upon a state’s capacity and holds the developed nations responsible (Davies et al., 2015). It is difficult to set a certain scope or boundary in obligation of the international society. Also, the lack of empirical measurement of compliance and internalization are drawbacks of the norm life …show more content…

She contends that R2P is within stage two of the norm life cycle and that when transforming from stage one to two, it was assisted by “R2P’s institutionalization into the UN machinery.” The author also mentions that the internalization process has increased political pressure on nations to address mass atrocity crimes (Reinold, 2013). On the contrary, Welsh (2013) contests that the norm life cycle fails to explain what happens after the norm is internalized and that the future interpretations of norms may change in its meaning. Moreover, Payne (2001) contends that the norm life cycle has limitations for not including an argument of actors advancing counter-claims or re-interpreting the fundamental ideas of a norm after the tipping point. In a similar vein, Berman (2001) argues that the norm life cycle is vague since it is difficult quantitatively measure exactly when a tipping point occurs and

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