US Efforts to Influence Government Policies on Human Trafficking

该合同符合2013年3月26日颁布的《2013年综合和进一步持续拨款法案》（P.L. 113-6）第五章第543节B部分。这个项目考察了美国政府为影响世界各国打击人口贩运所做的努力。该项目的思想影响是提高我们对外交的理解，以及国际社会如何通过不同的策略，如说服、羞辱和经济压力，鼓励政府进行国内改革。因此，该项目有助于解决有关权力和影响机制的核心问题。美国有一个强有力的打击人口贩运的计划：自2001年以来，美国国务院每年都公开报告世界各国打击人口贩运的努力。这些报告本身与国务院关于宗教自由或人权的其他报告类似，但它们在一个重要方面有所不同：对每个国家进行评级。国务院利用这些报告和评分来羞辱和赞扬一些国家，并提出建议，并在国家立法的支持下，以制裁来威胁那些不听话的国家。在每个国家，美国大使馆工作人员与官员、非政府组织和政府间组织接触，并鼓励各国制定国家反贩运行动计划、通过法律或建造庇护所。美国还要求国家当局提供有关其努力的数据，如果他们不这样做，就会受到批评。十年过去了，人们对这个项目的评价褒贬不一。本项目审查全球对贩运人口计划的反应，以及该计划对在世界各国推广其建议的一些打击贩运人口政策的贡献。美国是否能够推进其偏好的政策？如果是，哪些国家反应最积极或最迟钝？哪些战略奏效了，哪些适得其反？该项目将依赖于多种来源和方法。作者搜集了外交、新闻、组织报道等相关文献9000余份，并建立了世界各地相关非政府组织约500个的数据库。该研究将结合定量分析、文件内容分析、广泛访谈和案例研究来追踪实地发展。该项目将分三个层次进行。第一级试图解释不同国家对成绩差的不同反应。第二级侧重于美国推动国内反人口贩运法律努力的一个组成部分，并将使用全球定量研究和对26个国家的详细分析，这些国家在这一问题上的文献记录特别丰富。第三级更深入，仅使用7-8个国家来分析美国在其他本地和国际参与者背景下的整体努力的影响。更广泛的影响将是双重的。首先是实际的政策影响：人口贩运是一场人权悲剧，每年摧毁240多万男人、女人和儿童的生命。由于有关人口贩运的数据仍然不可靠，本项目无法评估目前的政策解决方案是否减少了人口贩运，但它可以评估外交努力是否成功地促使各国加强打击人口贩运的努力，并提供改进措施。这可以远远超出本项目的具体重点，与促进诸如民主、人权和各种政治改革等政策的其他努力有关。第二个影响是在教育方面：该项目将使学生有机会参与教学和研究，并通过会议、讲座、出版物广泛传播项目成果，并与公共政策学院的PI一起协调政策参与。

This award satisfies Division B, Title V, Sec. 543 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-6, enacted on March 26, 2013).This project examines the efforts of the US government to influence countries around the world to fight human trafficking. The project's intellectual impact is to improve our understanding of diplomacy and of how the international community can encourage governments to undertake domestic reforms through different strategies such as persuasion, shaming and economic pressure. The project thus contributes to core questions about power and mechanisms of influence.The US has a strong program against trafficking in persons: every year since 2001 the US State Department has reported publically on the efforts of countries around the world to combat human trafficking. The reports themselves are similar to other State Department reports on freedom of religion or human rights, but they differ in one important respect: the issuance of a grade for each country. The State Department uses the reports and the grades to shame and praise countries and issue recommendations, and, backed by national legislation, to threaten recalcitrant states with sanctions. In each country, US embassy staff engage with officials, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, and encourage countries to create national anti-trafficking action plans, pass laws, or build shelters. The US also requires national authorities to provide data about their efforts, and criticizes them if they do not. After ten years, opinions of the program are mixed. This project examines the global reactions to the TIP program and its contribution to promoting some of its recommended anti-trafficking policies in countries around the world. Has the US been able to advance its preferred policies and if so, which states have been most or least responsive, what strategies have worked and which have backfired? The project will rely on multiple sources and methods. The author has gathered over 9000 documents related to diplomacy, news and organizational reports and has also built a database of about 500 relevant NGOs around the world. The research will combine quantitative analysis with content analysis of documents, extensive interviews, and case studies to trace the developments on the ground. The project will proceed at three levels. Level one seeks to explain variation in how countries react to receiving bad grades. Level two focuses on a sub-component of US efforts to push for domestic anti-trafficking laws, and will use both a global quantitative study and a detailed analysis of 26 countries for which the documentary record on the issue is particularly rich. Level three goes deeper using only 7-8 countries to analyze the effect of the entirety of US efforts in the context of other local and international actors. The broader impacts will be twofold. First is the practical policy impact: Trafficking is a human rights tragedy that destroys the lives of more than 2.4 million men, women and children every year. Because data on trafficking are still unreliable, this project cannot assess whether the current policy solutions reduce trafficking volume, but it can assess whether diplomatic efforts are succeeding in getting countries to bolster their anti-trafficking efforts and offer prescriptions for improvements. This can be relevant far beyond the specific focus of this project to other efforts to promote policies such as democracy, human rights and various political reforms. The second impact is on education: The project will involve students in teaching and research opportunities, and disseminate project findings widely through conferences, lectures, publications and, with the PI in a school of public policy, also concerted policy engagement.