Defining International Organizations and Relations

International Organizations and Relations

In the world today, states are in mutual relationship in the international system, via International relations and and international organizations, hence the saying no state is an island and this have rendered the old argument between isolationists and internationalists unprofitable, unable to produce any result.

The increasing growth of information and communication technology has enabled this transnational interaction which has grown in diversity, complexity and intensity between state actors and non-state actors.

Despite these transnational interactions and integrations due to information and communication technology which has reduced the world to small global village, international system is not centralized, that is to say that there is nothing like world government or authority, so therefore there is no centralized governmental authority.

Every state in international system is sovereign and has the right to pursue its national interest which is their aim in international interaction. The pursuance of these national interests is bound to result to conflict among or between states with crushing national interest.

Therefore, for conflict to be prevented and world peace maintained, international organizations emerged which underscores the issue of world government which seems Utopians according to Claude (1984), the problem of building a world community is the problem of building international organizations.

And today, international relation is complex which have transformed international organization to a state unknown to previous civilization and this complexities has attracted a great deal of attention among scholars and practitioners in the Kaleidoscopic field of international politics to the study of international organizations.

EXPLAINING INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

International organizations have no definite definition. There are many scholars in the study of international organization and they have their various different definitions of the concept. However, we will look at some definitions by some prominent scholars.

International organization Is an institutional structure created by agreement among two or more sovereign states for the conduct of regular political interaction, a formal arrangement transcending national boundaries that provides for the establishment of institutional machinery to facilitate cooperation among members in the security, economic, social and related fields.

international organizations serve as  formal continuous structures established between members, (governmental and/or non-government), from two or more sovereign states with the aim of pursuing the common interest of their membership, organizing the growing complexity of international relations.

Manpower Development Impacts On Organizations

ETYMOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

The origin of international organizations is still unknown. The tracing of its origin have not yielded any result so it would be better to agree with Hodges (1978) who said that the origin of international organizations is akin to the origin of modern state itself.

The thirty years war and the treaty of Westphalia ended the reign of the Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church over the world.

Almost the whole world was united under the Roman Empire and Roman Catholic Church at about 1600 and after their reign another order was established in Europe which guaranteed peace for some decades. The need for cooperation for prevention of war, enhancement of welfare communication and commerce after the emergence of the modern state underscored the rising need for international organizations as well as its significance.

The peace which was established by the Westphalia system was destroyed by the French Revolution (1789) and the Napolenic wars. Napolenic wars were brought to an end by the congress of Vienna (1815) which brought another era of peace in Europe. In the post-Napoleon Europe, the concert of Europe became the framework for international relations.

According to Kegley Witkopt (1989), the central Commission for the Navigation of the Rline established by the congress of Vienna was the first modern international organization.

The Rusicrucian order established in 1649 was seen by others to have fitted the contemporary definition of international non-governmental organization (INGO). Through the mechanism of collective security, the concert of Europe represented an attempt by great powers of Britain, Russia, Austria, and Prussia to guarantee peace and order in Europe.

The killing of the heir of Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife the Duchess of Hohenburg on their 14^th wedding anniversary by 19 years old Assassin, Gravrilo principle coupled with the complicated alliance networks across Europe climaxed in the first world War.

It was later during the peace conference in France that the treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919 but came into effect in January 1920 and this lead to the birth of the League of Nations and its objective is the prevention of war and promotion of international cooperation.

With its formation, the League of Nations was then faced on how to promote peace, harmony in the world that was then characterized by the dictatorship of despotic leaders like Hitler of Germany, Mussolini of Italy and Franco of Spain.

The league of nation was however later dissolute. Some believed that the dissolution was caused by the invasion of Ethiopia by Mussolini while others believed that it was when the US senate voted the rejection of the treaty of Versailles in November 1919. United States was not a member of the league of Nation even though the formation of the league was spearheaded by the president of the United States, President Wilson.

The armistic on the Germans was another concrete reason for the collapse of League of Nations. German economy was so poor that it would take a full wheelbarrow of German Marks to get a loaf of bread in the market and German losing all its colonies and some parts of its territory in addition of Alsace Lorraine to its allies, they were then asked to pay more than 200 billion gold marks (16 billion pounds) and an annual 12.5 percent tax was to be levied on German export as war reparation. The living condition of the German was worsened by all these.

Adolf Hitler having ascended the chancellorship of the German Reich with 95 percent vote in German plebiscite withdrew from the league and also condemned the provisions of the Versailles treaty even after all the appeals of the Hoare-Laval Plan and later, Munich paradigm, the Nazis invaded Rhine land, Austria, Poland, France and Czechoslovakia. But before all these appeals, Adolf Hitler had already declared that Germany needed greater Lebensraum in his address to the Nazi party’s Annual Nuremberg Rally in 1937.

The league of National finally collapsed when it failed to prevent the outbreak of the World War II which started in 1939. This shattered the hope for collective security for world peace and order. However the World War II did not stop the quest for collective security system so therefore, allied leaders Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin towards the end of World War II in 1943 met in Tehran to deliberate on a possible post-war international organization.

The World War II was officially brought to an end when Germany surrendered in Rheims school, south of Hanburg on May 7 1954 but this was not done until the infamous “Rain of ruin” on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Despite the failure of the first attempt of the League of Nations, the quest for the right multilateral mechanism for the appropriate cooperation climax in the signing of the charter establishing the United Nations on June 26, 1945.

 

The United Nations is structured with the following organs:

The security council –with five permanent members –China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States and the non-permanent members which was at first six members and later ten members elected for two year tenure.

The General Assembly.

The Economic and Social Council.

The Trusteeship Council

The International Court of Justice

The Secretariat

The major goal and main objective of the UN was the maintenance of international peace and security just like the league of Nation. Also, promotion of international economic and social cooperation was another major objective of the UN and ECOSOC is the organ designed for that objectives.

The five permanent members known as “Big Five” were granted veto power. However, at the end of the World War II in 1945, the international political sphere encountered two major changes.

First was the emergence of two super powers which are the USA and USSR and the second was the disintegration of the colonial empire held by imperialist nations and this disintegration led to the emergence of international system of new states in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The two super powers have different ideologies and this led to the cold war between USA and USSR. USA with the capitalist ideals while USSR with the socialist ideal and for a long time, the UN could not know which of the two rivals to accord recognition.

The USSR backed Mao Zedong’s communist representatives of USA supported Nationalist led by china Kaiashek in the case of China. As for Germany, East Germany was under Soviet Union and West Germany under US. As for Korea, the bloody wars in the 1950s between the North Korea and South Korea, the US supported the South Korea while USSR supported the North Korea. Others were Angola, Vietnam and Afghanistan.

The third world countries emerged after the end of colonial rule and these countries after seeing that they cannot fight the issues of poverty, debt, aid, trade etc individually decided for the need for international organizations at sub-regional level and continental levels and such sub-regional organizations are organization of African unity, south-south cooperation, non-Aligned movement. They were all formed to address the problems.

The United Nations also resolved and managed sporadic conflicts across the globe. The UN has made indelible marks in the search for peace in the universe through the instrumentality of peace keeping, peace support or peace enforcement operations. Also in the area of humanitarian concerns, the United Nations has made an indelible marks such as the UNIFIL (United Nations Interian Force in Lebanon), UNSCOB (United Nations Special Committee on the Balkans) etc.

However, the international system has entered a new phase with the collapse of Soviet Union socialism and some international organizations are undergoing transformation like OAU to AU, EEC to EU, while others have gone moribund like COMECON, PACT, ANZUS, INARSAW while some are fighting for importance like the Non-Aligned movement.

The present day international organizations saw the need to promote cooperation, peace, economic, social and technological expansion are working on that.

US Plug in Vehicle Sales, Jan 2012 – Present Chart

REASONS FOR INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

First, the major reason for and primary objective of almost all international organizations is preservation and promotion of international peace and security.

Another reason for international organization is economic reasons. Some international organizations like the EU (European Union) is based on economic purpose, their reason is economic in nature.

International organization also provides or create a medium where both big and small states interacts on equal basis, each has the equal right to vote and be voted for, by so doing it reduces the gap between states.

International organizations also provide humanitarian aid to states in distress. For instance the Red Cross, UNHCR, Medicine Sans Frontier’s renders humanitarian assistance.

Also international organizations through activities like cultural exchanges and sports buttress friendship among nations for examples, common wealth Games, Olympic etc. creates the avenue for fostering friendship among nations.

So we can now agree with Bilgrami (1977) after seeing the above reasons that international organizations have become the “glue” that hold a divided universe together. So therefore the importance of international organization cannot be over emphasized.

CHARACTERISTICS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

1. International organizations are usually characterized with permanent institutional framework that carries out all the functions that are clearly stated.
2. In international organizations, there is free entry and free exist for any state, though acceptance of any member are set up on certain required values which the aspiring state must reach before it can become a member of that organization.
3. Every international organization have a guiding principle in a written document stating the goals, structure and modus operandi i.e. the method of operation which every member state must follow, adopt and adapt to.
4. Most of the international organizations there is an organ that is broadly representative of all member states. For example, the General Assembly of the United Nations and the North Atlantic council of NATO.
5. The existence of permanent secretariat to who various functions are being assigned to such as research, administrative functions and is being headed by secretary-general.
6. The treaty and agreements reached at the consent level guides the operations of the international organizations.

Varied Definitions of SME and SSE Across Countries

CLASSIFICATION OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION

There are varieties of international organizations. Thus international organizations can be classified on the basis of membership composition, geographical spread of membership and sphere of authority functions or purpose and profit motive.

1. Membership Composition: Here the international organizations composes of only states as its members, thus it is international government organization (IGO). Examples EU, OAS, G8, OAS.

Also it membership composes of non-governmental bodies, it is therefore international non-governmental organization (INGO) example International Political science Association (IPSA), Transparency international etc.

Also some organizations compose of both governmental and non-governmental membership, examples World Wide Foundation (WWF), International Labour Organization (ILO) etc.

2. Geographical Spread of Membership: Here we have universal/global organization, regional and sub-regional organizations.
3. Universal/Global Organizations: Here membership is not restricted to any particular area; rather membership is drawn from across the globe. Examples the United Nations, Common Wealth of Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
4. Regional Organizations: Here membership is restricted to a particular area. Examples European Union (EU) in Europe, the African union (AU) in Africa and the mercusor in South America. Etc.
5. Functions or Purpose: Here we have
6. General Purpose Organizations
7. Specialized International Organizations
8. General Purpose Organizations: Here their function is general, across both social, economic, political, and social-cultural realm. Examples are UN, AU, ASEAN, Arab League etc.
9. Specialized International Organization: Here, the organization specializes on a particular mandate, example FUFA, NATO, OPEC etc.
10. Profit Motive: Here we have
11. Profit seeking International Organization.
12. Non-Profit seeking international organization
13. Profit Seeking International Organization: They are non-governmental Organization bodies which operate their business criss-cross the globe, they are profit making motivated example MTN, shell BP, Julius Berger, Cocoa Cola etc
14. Non-Profit Seeking International Organization: They are not profit making motivated. Example ECOWAS, Amnesty International, UN, Red Cross etc.

FUNCTIONS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS  

1. It provides the avenue for states to air their view on major world issues providing the platform for protection and projections of the interest of every member states.
2. It makes communication between member states less expensive by providing multiple contact diplomacy.
3. International organizations helps in conflict resolution creating the avenue for compromise, accommodation, common sense of values.
4. They also offer technical support to member states on specific problems and also provides avenue for dialogue for settlement of dispute in the state.

PROBLEMS OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

International organizations are deficient of enforcement capability. It lacks that mechanism of sovereignty and authority since there is nothing like world/centralized sovereignty or government and authority.

Most international organizations depends on the collective security in the preservation of peace and prevention of war, so therefore, intervention of collective security in conflict can only be possible if belligerent parties agrees to it.

In international organizations, economic interests mostly favour the rich, industrial and developed nations while the poor pre-industrialized nations are always at the backward behind.

There is a rivalry between the rich and the poor nations in the international organizations.

Also international organizations are faced with the problem of finance as most members are not able to pay the required fees.

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