Contestation in Prism: An Introduction

The introductory chapter outlines the volume’s contribution to contemporary debates in norm contestation theory, with particular attention to the effects of contestation on international norm dynamics ‘in prism’, or how different types of contestation in different issue areas affect norms that are interlinked in complex networks. This chapter develops a theoretical framework that integrates two recent strands of International Relations norms research into a comprehensive model: studies of different typologies of norm contestation and analyses of norm robustness and norm cluster resiliency. Our work bridges these theories to set up a systematic, comparative examination in the chapters that follow of the relationship between contestation and norms embedded in clusters in the face of contestation. This multidimensional approach promotes further study of contestation in prism and helps frame the rich and diverse case studies that appear in this volume. Taken together, the diverse perspectives, issue areas, and theoretical applications gathered for this collection offer noteworthy insights for contemporary norm contestation theory.