ABSTRACT
This chapter presents evidence that the rise of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) exerting substantial soft power is resulting in two new influ-ences in international relations. It includes stronger multilateral platform for policy debate and action, and establishing opportunities for more informed debate and decision-making processes in the environmental arena, particularly in the area of climate change. Examining The Nature Conservancy's (TNC) climate change program as one example reveals indications that soft power is increasingly a tool used by TNC to influence other actors. Joseph Nye's framework of hard and soft power is helpful in understanding how NGO behavior can be seen as a set of nuanced, coordinated actions that employ elements of soft and hard power. Hugo Grotius outlined the international system as a chaotic shifting series of interrelated power relations between states. Transformed power enables TNC to utilize hard power strategies and tactics to accomplish its mission, albeit in the nominally restricted position of soft power.
