Professional Documents
Culture Documents
International Organizations
International Organizations
Types of IOs
IGOs INGOs
● Is an NGOs
● Active in at least 3 countries
● Established by intergovernmental
● Have a constitutions allowing for
agreements
periodic elections of the governing
● Have at least 3 member states
body
● Have activities in several states
● No attempt to distribute profit
among members
International Bureaucracies/
International Organizations International Public Administration
(IPA)
Based on purpose:
● Multi-purposes
● Single-purposes
Characteristics of IOs?
History of IOs
- The Concert of Europe (1815-1914) - The balance of power that existed in Europe
from the fall of Napoleon to the outbreak of WWI. This was a result of a custom,
following the era of Napoleon and the French Revolution, adopted by the old great
powers of Europe. The Concert would meet from time to time in an International
Conference, or Congress, in order to plan a solution by mutual agreement (concert),
whenever some problem arose that threatened peace between European nations. A
mechanism to enforce the decisions of the Congress of Vienna.
- The League of Nations (1919 - 1939) - President Woodrow Wilson considered its
architect, established after WWI, having universal membership, predeceasing the UN.
The UN embraces most of the League’s principles and structures.
- The post WWII era – massive proliferation of IGOs and other IOs (over 20,000).
Creation of the UN System in 1945. The founders – victorious allies of WWII – meet in
San Francisco to found a multipurpose IGO first envisioned by the League of Nations.
Universal membership, currently up to 192 countries (all countries in the world, except
Vatican and Kosovo)
The UN system structured around five principal organs, together with its several agencies
and autonomous organizations, comprise the UN family of IGOs.
- Problem condition
- Cognitive condition
- Hegemonic condition
- Read “Why states act through formal IOs”
GLOBAL IOs..
History of UN
● The League was formally dismantled on April 18, 1946, when it was succeeded by
the newly organized United Nations.
● The International Court of Justice (ICJ) - known as World Court is the primary
judicial organ of the UN, based in the Hague, Netherlands.
- Main functions are to settle legal disputes submitted to it by member states and to
give advisory opinions on legal questions submitted to it by duly authorized
international organs, agencies and the UN General Assembly.
- Composed of fifteen judges elected to nine year terms by the Un General
Assembly and the UN Security Council from a list of persons nominated by the
national groups in the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
- Elections take place every three years, with one-third of the judges retiring each
time, in order to ensure continuity within the court.
- Tendency towards failure in decision making in the Security Council due to the
veto right of each P5, the interests of which often overlap.
- Tension between the UN and US, which is the largest contributor but also the
largest debtor to the UN.
- US withdrawing from Kyoto Protocol and International Criminal Court.
- 9/11 raises questions about the appropriate role of the UN.
- US invasion of Iraq in 2003 without UN authorization.
Regional Governance
- Some issues can be better managed at the regional rather than the global level
- The level of regional governance is uneven throughout the international system
Countries are unwilling to cooperate because of national pride, political tension, lack of
trust, high coordination cost among large number of countries
International and regional cooperation agreements are typically harder to achieve than
national ones → lack of courts or higher authorities → the enforcement is ambiguous and
weak at international level → agreements are self forcing
Regional governance has been conceptualized in close connection with the discussion
about the erosion of the concept of sovereignty
State sovereignty may thus be limited by the need to comply with rules produced
regionally
- The institutions are not concentrated in a single city: they are instead based across
three cities, Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.
- The Treaty of Amsterdam (arranging locations) states that the Commission and
Council would be based in Brussels, the Courts in Luxembourg and the Parliament
in Strasbourg.
- However some departments of the Commission and meetings of the Council take
place in Luxembourg, while the Parliament has its committees and some sessions
in Brussels and its secretariat in Luxembourg.
- Of the new institutions, the Central Bank is based in Frankfurt, while the European
Council is based in Brussels, but has some extraordinary meetings elsewhere.
● The European Council – Intergovernmental body of the EU, consisting of heads
of EU member states/governments and representing the political leadership of the
EU.
- Formally established by the Single European Act in 1985 and strengthened by the
Maastricht Treaty in 1992.
- The European Council meets twice a year with representatives of other EU
institutions to coordinate EU policy with national policies and interests.
- Influential body as most of the political and military decisions are still made at the
national level.
- Current Presidency taken after France: The Check Republic, President Mirek
Topolanek.
● The European Commission – supranational body and the bureaucratic arm of the
EU, generator of most of the proposals and initiatives.
- Formally reporting to the Council of Ministers, but yet exercising a great deal of
autonomy.
- The Commission members (25 appointed for four year terms) are responsible to
further the interests of the EU as opposed to the interests of their own countries.
- Power to initiate policy proposals. Power to execute EU policies. Power to control
- guardian of EU Treaties.
- Current president: Ursula von der Leyen
INTER-REGIONAL ORGANIZATIONS..
APEC
- The idea of APEC was first mentioned by former prime minister of Australia Bob
Hawke during a speech in Seoul, Korea, on 31 January 1989
- In the same year, 12 Asia-Pacific countries launched the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC), to foster trans pacific economic cooperation
- 12 founding members: Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Indonesia; Japan;
Korea; Malaysia; New Zealand; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; and the
United States with headquarter in Singapore
- Aims: to create greater prosperity for the people of the region by promoting
balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating
regional economic integration.
● APEC’s Structure
- APEC is not a legally speaking international organization. It is an international
forum, where member economies in the region could cooperate in trade and
investment liberalization
- It operates on the basis of non-binding commitments, open dialogue and equal
respect for the views of all participants
- Decision-making is reached by consensus
ASEM
- Established in 1996 with a summit in Bangkok that brought together leaders of 10
East Asian states (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand,
Vietnam, China, Japan, South Korea) and 15 EU member states plus the President
of the European Commission
- Is an informal forum for dialogue and cooperation, bringing together 53 partners
from across Europe and Asia, including 2 institutional partners: the EU and the
ASEAN Secretariat
- Representing about 60% of the world’s GDP, population and global trade
- Main purpose: to provide a platform for fostering political dialogue, strengthening
economic cooperation and tackling global challenges.
● ASEM’s Structure
- ASEM was designed to be loose and non-binding and was principally designed as
a channel for dialogue
- It has no permanent secretariat of its own → not an international organization by
definition
- ASEM works through meeting and activities organized at different levels:
+ The ASEM Summit is a meeting between the 51 Heads of State or
Government, the President of the European Council, the President of the
European Commission, and the Secretary-General of the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The summits are held every second
year, in Asia and Europe alternatively
+ Ministerial Meetings are organized in-between the ASEM Summits,
gathering ministers of foreign affairs, finance, economics, etc.
+ Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM) bring together high-level civil servants
from the Foreign Ministries of all ASEM partners for the overall
coordination of the ASEM process.
+ Other activities and initiatives are organized by ASEM partners on a wide
range of issues of mutual interest.
● NATO’s Principle
- Article 4: NATO serves also as a place for discussion about political and military
issues or threats
- Article 5: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in
Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all…”
- “The Alliance was so successful as a deterrent that it never resorted to Article 5 or
deployed the substantial military forces under its umbrella during the Cold War”
● Finance
● History of GATT/WTO
- After WWII, the tendency was to establish international organizations in the
search for a new kind of global economic stability
- 1947 at Geneva Conference countries signed the General Agreement on Tariffs
and Trade (GATT)
- 1947-1948 Havana Conference was held to draw up the final text of the Havana
Charter in order to establish International Trade Organization(ITO) => in the end
the establishment of ITO was postponed indefinitely => GATT regulate
international trade
- 1994 Uruguay Round of Trade Talks: The World Trade Organization (WTO) was
established
● Functions of WTO
- Administering WTO trade agreements
- Forum for trade negotiations
- Handling trade disputes
- Monitoring national trade policies
- Technical assistance and training for developing countries
- Cooperation with other international organizations
IMF
● IMF’s Finances
Quotas:
- The IMF's resources come mainly from the money that countries pay as their
capital subscription when they are members.
- Quotas broadly reflect the size of each member's economy: the larger a country's
economy in terms of output and the larger and more variable its trade, the larger its
quota tends to be. They also help determine how much countries can borrow from
the IMF and their share in allocations of special drawing rights or SDRs (the
reserve currency created by the IMF in 1969).
Gold:
- The IMF holds a relatively large amount of gold among its assets, for reasons of
financial soundness, also to meet unforeseen contingencies.
- The IMF holds 90.5 million ounces (2,814.1 metric tons) of gold, worth about
$120.1 billion, making it the third-largest official holder of gold in the world.
● Membership
- There are two types of members:
- Original members: All those countries whose representatives took part in Bretton
Wood Conference and who agreed to be the members of the fund prior to 31st
December, 1945.
- Ordinary members: All those who became its members sub - sequentially.
- Bank has the authority to suspend any member and similarly members are free to
resign.
● Purpose
- Promote international monetary cooperation.
- Expansion and balanced growth of international trade.
- Promote exchange rate stability.
- The elimination of restrictions on the international flow of capital.
- Help establish a multilateral system of payments and eliminate foreign exchange
restrictions.
- Make resources of the Fund available to members.
- Shorten the duration and lessen the degree of disequilibrium in international
balances of payments.
- Promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly
exchange arrangements
- Foster economic growth and high levels of employment.
- Temporary financial assistance to countries to help the balance of payments
adjustments
● Operations
- Monitoring economic and financial developments and policies, in member
countries and at the global level, giving policy advance to its members
- Lending to member countries with balance of payments problems, supporting
adjustment and reform policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems.
- Technical assistance and training to help governments to implement sound
economic policies.
● Each national currency was backed by the quantity ● Currencies are not backed
of gold held by the country’s central bank by physical commodity but
● Currencies were freely convertible into gold on people’s faith in the
● Lower inflation government
WORLD BANK
- The World Bank is an international organization which provides loans and grants
to countries
- The World Bank operates as a development agency with a mission statement that
says ‘”our dream is a world without poverty”
- Their main purposes are
- Headquarter: Washington D.C, US
- Members: 189 countries (must join IMF to join WB)
● Finance
- The World Bank, in its early form of the IBRD, was largely dependent on selling
bonds to raise the bulk of its loan capital. The rest of the available funds came
from the subscriptions of member countries.
- Now, the WB's financial reserves come from several sources - from funds raised in
the financial markets, from earnings on its investments, from fees paid in by
member countries, from contributions made by members and from interest
acquired after countries pay back their loans
- The Bank has a large financial reserves, which make it is possible for them borrow
money at low interest rates from capital markets all over the world to then lend
money to developing countries on very favorable terms
● Voting Power
- The number of shares a country has is based roughly on the size of its economy.
The United States is the largest single shareholder, followed by Japan, Germany,
the United Kingdom, and France
- A country contributes more to the WB will have more voting power (similar to the
IMF)
Introduction
- 1943: The United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt called a United Nations
Conference on Food and Agriculture
- 44 governments gathered in Hot Springs, Virginia from 18 May to 3 June → The
Constitution of the Food and Agriculture Organization established the Food and
Agriculture Organization in Quebec City, Canada on October 16, 1945
- The oldest of UN’s specialized agencies that leads international efforts to defeat
hunger
- Member: 194 member states and the European Union
- The main task of FAO (the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations) is to ensure food security (agriculture, rural development, forestry and
fisheries)
Codex Alimentarius
Name of the food. List of ingredients. Net content and drained weight. Name and address
of manufacture. Country of origin. Lot identification. Date making and storage
instructions. Instruction for use
(17 SDGs)
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has chosen Goal 2
of the SDGs, as its flagship goal
(Timelines)
Kyoto Protocol
Paris Agreement
- The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change
- The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep the global average temperature
rise this century as close as possible to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial
levels
- The Paris Agreement works on a 5- year cycle of increasingly ambitious climate
action carried out by countries. By 2020, countries submit their plans for climate
action known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).
UNEP
- In 1972, 113 governments came together in Stockholm to establish the
international architecture for addressing global environmental problems → United
Nations Environmental Programme
- “The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been the global
authority that sets the environmental agenda, promotes the coherent
implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development
within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the
global environment.”
- Headquarter: Nairobi, Kenya
- Members: 193 countries
- 95% of their fund comes from voluntary contribution of member states
● Structure
- UNEP has 7 divisions that are working under the leadership of a Senior
Management Teams
● Communication Division
● Corporate Services Division
● Economy Division
● Ecosystems Division
● Governance Affairs Office
● Law Division
● Policy and Programme Division
● Science Division
- In 2012, the UN Environment Assembly was established. UNEA meets to set
priorities for global environmental policies and develop international
environmental law. Decisions and resolutions taken by member states at the
Assembly also define the work of UNEP
UNFCCC
- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
entered into force on 21 March 1994. UNFCCC is the parent treaty of the Kyoto
Protocol and the Paris Agreement
- Members: 197 countries ratified, near universal membership
- The UNFCCC secretariat (UN Climate Change) is the United Nations entity
tasked with supporting the global response to the threat of climate change
- Headquarter: Bonn, Geneva
● History
- The term "non-governmental organization" was first coined in 1945, when the
United Nations (UN) was created
- According to the UN any kind of private organization that is independent from
government control can be termed as ‘NGO’
- In some countries the term NGO is applied to an organization that in another
country would be called an NPO (non profit organization).
● Roles
- Advocate for specific policies and offer alternative channels of political
participation
- NGOs are also the primary actors at the grassroots level in mobilizing individuals
to act
- NGOs take the place of states, either performing services that an inept or corrupt
government is not providing or stepping in for a failed state.
- Working in networks and coalitions to enhance each other’s power