Interest Groups at Transnational Negotiation Conferences: Goals, Strategies, Interactions, and Influence

Interest groups partake in transnational negotiation conferences en masse. This is surprising given that the chances for influencing policymaking at these venues appear to be slim while the costs of participation are high. This amounts to an interesting question: why do so many interest groups attend transnational conferences? This article aims to answer this question by offering the first systematic study of the activities of interest groups at transnational conferences. It analyzes the goals, strategies, interactions, and influence of various types of interest groups at two transnational conferences; namely, the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference (2011) and the Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2012). The data was collected through 349 interviews with interest group representatives and 129 interviews with government delegates who participated in these conferences.