Norms in Motion: How Local Ideas and Solutions Travel On in Southeast Asia

The obligation to protect civilians from the devastating effects of war and the ensuing duty to hold perpetrators accountable for gross violations of human rights have solidified as international norms. However, global responses to tackle these challenges have often proven inadequate due to their top-down orientation and decontextualized approach. In response, there is growing recognition that global approaches must be adapted to local circumstances and prioritize local initiatives if they are to be meaningful, effective and sustainable.

The existing literature on “localization” has focused primarily on how domestic political elites and regional actors modify and adapt global norms to national contexts. The agency of local actors – those operating at the subnational level, such as non-governmental organizations and community networks, individuals, and other local stakeholders – as norm makers have commonly been overlooked. This multi-year project responds to this gap by foregrounding the local-to-global dimensions of norm development and circulation.

Through an in-depth comparative case study of civilian self-protection in South Thailand and local transitional justice efforts in Cambodia, this project explores how local actors use their own practices, discourses, and strategies – rooted in local rather than global ideas – to address the complex issues confronting their societies. It further examines how local ideas “travel on” in political arenas – both horizontally and vertically – thereby reshaping global understandings of “justice” and “protection.”

By reframing localization as a dynamic, multidirectional process, this project demonstrates how norms can emerge and transform from the inside-out, carried forward through horizontal and vertical relations. Scholarly inquiry into how concretely subnational actors exert agency to adapt and transmit local ideas and solutions back to the global level will contribute a layer to the literature on local transitional justice and civilian protection. These findings hold significance not only for scholars of norms and governance but also for policymakers seeking to design context-specific approaches that reflect and amplify local agency.

This project is supported in part by funding from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant (2025-30).

Related Articles

• Kochanski, Adam, Emily K. M. Scott, and Jennifer Welsh. 2025. “Localization in World Politics: Bridging Theory and Practice.” Global Studies Quarterly 5 (1): ksaf023.

Expected Outputs

• Book project
• Special issue project on norm contestation and transitional justice in Southeast Asia
• Scholarly articles
• New episodes of “Localization in World Politics” podcast
• Policy briefs

Research Partners