Is the growth of a global civil society a cumulative process, or are we only seeing occasional transnational outcroppings in a sea of states? To put this question more broadly: "Is the traditional divide between domestic and international politics breaking down?" On this question much of the future of transnational social movement activism depends. I will first illustrate the dilemma with a story that is both current and familiar; the Olympic Torch protests in London and Paris and its connections to Tibet and Darfur, for what it tells us about the nature of transnational public activism. I will then construct a typology of forms of domestic/transnational interaction among non-state public actors; I will then turn - with some trepidation - to a prediction about the future of what some have called "global civil society" and how it may affect transnational activism.
transnational activism; social movements; global civil society; comparative politics; non-state public actors
