International Organization and the United

Nations
Some important international organizations aside
from the UN
• World Bank
• World Trade Organization
• International Monetary Fund
What is an International Organization?
• Sometimes called International Governmental Organizations (IGOs)
• Different from International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs)
• Formal procedures
• Formal structures that enforces rules
• Membership of 3 or more states
• Instruments – mechanism where states pursue their own interest
• Arenas – facilitate debate and information exchange
Most common bases for categorizing IOs

• Membership
• Competence – issue-specific or comprehensive
• Function – programme organization or operational organization
• Decision-making authority
How about global governance?
• It is a wider and more extensive
phenomenon than international
organization
• Encompasses a range of formal and
informal processes
• Involves a wider array of actors like
national governments, NGOs, citizens’
movements, transnational
corporations (TNCs), and global
markets
• IOs are often a key, if not the key, in
global governance
The UNITED NATIONS
• San Francisco Conference (April-
June 1945)
• Its predecessor is the League of
Nations
• To enable collective security
• Arbitrate over international
disputes
• Bring about disarmament
How the UN works
• The Security Council – maintenance of international peace and
security
• The General Assembly – deliberative body that represents all UN
members equally
• The Secretariat – administers the programme and policies laid down
by the UN’s principal organs
• Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – coordinate the economic
and social work of the UN and the UN family of organizations
Promoting peace and security
• Collective security – the pledge to
defend one another to deter aggression
or to punish a transgressor if
international order is breached
• The success of collective security
depends on 3 conditions: (1) states
must be roughly equal, (2) all states
must be willing to bear the cost and
responsibility of defending one another,
(3) and there must be an international
body with moral authority and political
capacity to take effective action
• The UN has only had limited and intermittent success in establishing a
system of collective security that can replace reliance on violent self-help
• Severely limited by the fact that it is essentially a creature of its members
• For much of its history, the UN was virtually paralyzed by superpower
rivalry (e.g. during the Cold War, the USA and the Soviet Union adopted
opposing positions which prevented the Security Council from taking
decisive action)
• Failed to develop its own military capacity (often subcontracted)
Peacekeeping
• A technique designed to preserve
the peace, however fragile, where
fighting has been halted, and to
assist in implementing agreements
achieved by the peacemakers.
• Requires consent of the host
country
• Advantage: impartial reporting on
adherence to a ceasefire
Peace-building
• A long-term process of creating the
necessary conditions for sustainable
peace by addressing the deep-
rooted, structural causes of violent
conflict in a comprehensive manner
• Occurs after peacemaking and
peacekeeping have been completed
• ‘Positive’ peace
Promoting economic and social development

• 1960s onwards
1. More attention on the unequal
distribution of wealth worldwide
2. Increased acceptance that economic and
social problems in one part of the world
have implications for other parts of the
world
3. Peace and security on the one hand, and
development, justice and human rights
on the other, are not separate agendas
• United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) – principal vehicle responsible for
global development policy
Future for the UN: challenges and reform
• Gap between expectations and performance
• The nature of the challenges facing the UN has changed significantly
over time
• Growing trend toward multipolarity