Transnational Illiberal Networks

This chapter analyzes both the emergence and the global diffusion of transnational actor networks that pursue illiberal political goals, such as the restriction of women’s and LGBTI rights. The timeline for analysis starts around 1995, when the inclusion of women’s and other gender-related issues on the United Nations’ human-rights agenda caused an international conservative religious reaction. The chapter gives an overview of relevant actors in transnational illiberal networks, homing in on the World Congress of Families as an example, and it analyzes the claims and strategies that make the collaboration between illiberal, conservative, and oft-nationalist actors possible. Our central claims are that transnational illiberal networks have global reach and bring together unusual suspects among far-right politicians, religious leaders, business sponsors, and civil-society activists. These strange bedfellows have been galvanized through vilifying rival networks—those representing liberal and progressive norm mobilization, such as the women’s and LGBTI rights movements—as threats.