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Drawn largely from three bodies of literature, this study probes three factors conditioning the efficacy of NGO policy advocacy. The first factor, suggested by the pluralist interest group theory and the resource mobilization theory of social movements, concerns the human and organizational resources of the NGOs. Four elements of NGO resources memberships, revenues, leaderships, and expertise are analyzed. The second and third factors are pertinent to what the political process approach to social movements calls the political opportunity structure. The second factor is an availability of NGO access to policy-making processes, while the third factor is a configuration of allies and opponents within the policy networks concerned with each issue. For the access factor, this study examines degrees of NGO access to both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. federal government in each case. For the alliance and opposition configuration, this study measures and compares the degrees of support/opposition displayed by major participants in policy deliberations of each issue toward NGO advocacy.

The analysis shows that while the resource and access factors have not much affected the efficacy of NGO advocacy reflected in the two environmental treaties, the configuration of allies and opponents played a crucial role. Based on these findings, this study makes some theoretical suggestions for future studies of NGO policy advocacy and also practical suggestions for more effective NGO advocacy.