INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THE QUEST FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE

INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (IGOs) & NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs)  There is an impressive number of nonstate actors on the world stage that are increasingly flexing their political muscles in efforts to engineer adaptive global changes.  Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) are purposely created by states to solve shared problems. This gives IGOs whatever authority they possess for the purposes states assign them. They meet at regular intervals, and they have a permanent secretariat (or headquarters staff) and established rules for making decisions. Example; the United Nations.  Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) are associations comprised of members who are private individuals and groups. NGOs are generally regarded as less important than IGOs since they do not have states among their members. Example; Amnesty International.

GLOBAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS  IGOs differ widely in terms of their sizes and purposes. Some of them qualify as ‘global’ with high levels of participation by the state actors all around the world, while some others are more limited in terms of their scope and regional implications.  In both global and regional scale, the expansion of IGOs contributed to the growth of a wide-reaching awareness on important global issues, such as, trade, disarmament, economic development, health, culture, human rights, labor, gender equality, poverty, debt...

THE UNITED NATIONS  The United Nations (UN) is the most known global intergovernmental organization. It is established at the end of World War II in 1945, and it is the successor of the League of Nations that was launched after World War I to prevent a possible reoccurrence of such a conflict.  The organization (UN) reflects the relationships of five victorious states (the People’s Republic of China, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France) that had been allied during World War II, and these states govern the organization through their veto authorities in the Security Council.  However, the veto privilege of the given five countries does not change the fact that the United Nations is a deeply important platform for all of its 192 member states to express and share their official concerns and attitudes on global matters, such as, terrorism, climate change...

PURPOSES OF THE UNITED NATIONS  Maintaining international peace and security,  Developing friendly relations among states based on the principles of equal rights and the self-determination of peoples,  Achieving international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian character. Promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all,  Functioning as a center for harmonizing the actions of countries to attain these common ends,  The UN is also a key actor for replacing the balance of power system with one based on collective security(guided by the principle that an act of agression by any state would be met by a collective retaliatory response from the rest).

The UN’s Expanding Agenda  The history of the UN reflects the fact that both rich countries and developing countries have succesfully used the organization to promote their own foreign policy goals, and this record has led to the ratification of more than three hundred treaties and conventions consistent with the UN’s six fundamental values: international freedom, equality, solidarity, tolerance, respect for nature, and a sense of shared responsibility. Check p. 167 for conferences on different issues.  However the UN’s ambitions may exceed its meager resources. The UN has been asked to adress an expanding set of pressing military and nonmilitary problems and its plate is full. In response to the demands that have been placed on it, the United Nations has evolved over time into a vast administrative machinery, with offices and staff not only in the UN headquarters in New York but also in centres throughout the globe.

THE UN’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE (contains the following six major bodies)  General Assembly; is the main deliberative body of the United Nations. All members are represented according to one-state/one-vote formula. Decisions are taken by a simple majority with the exception of important questions, which require a two-thirds majority. The resolutions passed by the General Assembly are only recommendations.  Security Council; has the primary responsibility of dealing with threats to international peace and security. It consists of five permanent members with the power to veto decisions (the People’s Republic of China, the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France), and ten non-permanent members elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms ( now ): Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Portugal, Brazil, India, South Africa, Colombia, Lebanon, Gabon and Nigeria

THE UN’S ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Economic and Social Council; Economic and Social Council; is responsible for coordinating the UN’s social and economic programs, functional commissions, and specialized agencies. This body has been particularly active adressing economic development and human rights issues. Trusteeship Council; Trusteeship Council; is charged with supervising the administration of territories that had not achieved self-rule. The Trusteeship Council suspended operation in 1994, when the last remaining trust territory gained independence. International Court of Justice; International Court of Justice; is the principle judicial organ of the United Nations. It is composed of fifteen independent judges who are elected for nine- year terms by the General Assembly and Security Council. The competence of the Court is restricted to disputes between states, and its jurisdiction is based on the consent of disputants. Secretariat; Secretariat; led by the Secretary General (Ban Ki Moon), the Secretariat contains the civil servants who perform the administrative and secretarial functions of the UN.

FUTURE CHALLENGES: The past couple of decades have been reducing confidence in the UN’s ability to fulfill its ambitious goals by building global norms, and the doubts compounded by many cases such as its ineffectiveness regarding the genocide in Darfur/Sudan, and its failure to tackle the human-rights conditions in Gaza during and after the 2008 military operation of Israel.

OTHER PROMINENT GLOBAL IGOs  The International Monetary Fund (IMF); formed at the Bretton Woods Conference in Before World War II, the international community lacked global institutional mechanisms in economic nature. IMF is a truly global IGO designed to maintain currency-exchange stability, function as a lender for countries experiencing financial crises, and promote international monetary cooperation.  The World Bank; formed at the Bretton Woods Conference in Originally established to support reconstruction efforts in Europe after World War II. However, the organization shifted its attention to finance projects aimed at promoting economic growth by offering loans with low interest rates and long repayment plans to underdeveloped and developing countries.  The World Trade Organization; established in order to prevent a possible repetition of the Great Depression of Bilateral tariff concessions called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) superseded by the World Trade Organization (WTO). The WTO is targeting to replace regional free-trade agreements or free trade-blocs with an integrated world-wide system of free trade.

REGIONAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS  The Notion that intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are run by the states that join them severely hinders or restrains the IGOs ability to rise above the interstate competition and pursue their own purposes.  However, a rival hypothesis emerges from the viewpoint or perspective related to the European Union (EU). The EU is a unique success story among other regional intergovernmental organizations. It is an example of peaceful cross-border cooperation producing an integrated “security community” with a single economy.

European Union  European Union; is a regional organization created by the merger of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951) and the European Atomic Energy Community (1957).  The six founders of the European Coal and Steel Community were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg. Netherlands.  European Atomic Energy Community (1957). (same member countries).  It has since expanded geographically (1973, 1981, 1986, 1995, 2004, 2007). Today it has 27 members.

The Functionalist Philosophical Rationale for European Integration  European political integration process aimed at the establishment of an institution that would occasionally surpass individual European states, and this would contribute to the transformation of international relations from instruments of states to institutions over them.  European integration process that have led to the European Union has been influenced by the philosophical backgrounds of functionalism and neofunctionalism.  Functionalism; is based on a “peace by pieces” formula in which the IGOs (in our case its the EU) built around the “shared or pooled sovereignty” of its member states instead of a total surrender of sovereignty. Cooperation on a functional area, if successful, will have a “spill-over” effect on the other functional areas (e.g., European Coal and Steel Community  European Economic Community)  (Spillover; deepening of ties in one functional area of cooperation among the member states of a regional IGO, and the expansion of the given integration to other areas or fields.)  Neofunctionalism; holds that political institutions and policies should be crafted so that they can lead to further integration.

ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION  The Council of Ministers; is the European Union’s administrative unit, and consists of cabinet members drawn from the EU’s member states. It represents the governments of the member states and retains final authority over the policy-making decisions.  The European Commission; consists of twenty seven commissioners each one coming from member states who are nominated by the governments of the member states and must be approved by the European Parliament. Primary functions of the commission are to oversee the negotiation of EU treaties, propose new laws for the EU, execute the decisions of the Council of Ministers, manage the EU’s budget.  The European Parliament; represents the political parties and public opinion within Europe. It is elected in direct elections by the citizens of the EU’s member states. The Parliament shares authority with the Council of Ministers, but the Parliament’s influence has increased over time. It passes laws with the council, approves the EU’s budget, and oversee the Commission

 The European Court of Justice; was given the responsibility for adjudicating claims and conflicts among the EU member states as well as between those states and the institutions within the framework of the European Union. In addition, the court interprets EU law for national courts, and also rules on cases concerning individual citizens. OTHER REGIONAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (IGOs)  The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); is a military alliance created in 1949 primarily to deter the Soviet Union in Western Europe. NATO has expanded its membership and broadened its mission in the post-Cold War era.  The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)- established to promote regional economic, social and cultural cooperation.

 The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) established in 1975 to promote regional economic cooperation among its members.  The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)-established in 1969 to promote Islamic solidarity and cooperation by coordinating a large number of activities among a number of Islamic states.  The Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) established in 1980 to promote and regulate reciprocal trade among its twelve members.  The Southern African Development Community (SADC) established to promote regional economic development and integration  The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) established to promote economic, social and cultural cooperation established to promote economic, social and cultural cooperation

The Asia Pasific Economic Cooperation (APEC)- plans to establish free and open trade and investments in the region for developed and developing countries.

Success of Integration  What are the factors that make integration more succesful?  Chances of political integration wane without geographical proximity, steady economic growth, similar political systems, supportive public opinion led by enthusiastic leaders, cultural homogeneity, internal political stability, similar experiences in historical and internal social development, compatible economic systems with supportive business interests, a shared perception of a common external threat, bureucratic compatibilities, and previous collaborative efforts.

 Discussion: Can nation states cope with challenges facing the world?  Will global intergovernmental organizations replace the states as the primary actor in world politics?