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Introduction to International Organization Lecture Notes
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In this document you can find exhaustive lecture notes for the introductory course of International Organizations for 1st year IRO students, in Q1.
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Lecture 1: CONCEPTS AND CHARACTERISTICSInternational politics cannot be understood without thinking about international
organizations
IGOs Global: UN, IMF, WB
- Intergovernmental orgs. Regional: EU, OAS, AU, ASEAN,
- Established by state etc.
NGOs Profit Orientated: Apple,
- Non-governmental orgs. Microsoft, GM, Shell, etc.
- Established by non-state actors Advocacy-Orientated:
- Private voluntary organizations Greenpeace, Amnesty Intl., ICR
- Whose members are individuals or associations that
come together to achieve a common purpose
What are IOs
IOs are a specific class of international institutions
Institutions:
- ‘a body of norms, rules and practices that shape behavior and
expectations, without necessarily having the physical character of an
international organization’
- Regular State Meetings: they get together, at least once a year to meet
and discuss affair
- Formal Treaty Base: Created based on a formal intergovernmental
agreement, treaty/statute
- Formal rules and procedures that define how decision making is formed
Categorization
1. MEMBERSHIP
a. Universal: every state can become a member (UN)
b. Limited: only some states can become a member (regional basis:
EU)
2. COMPETENCE
a. Comprehensive/General Purpose: IOs deal with many different
issues and topics (UN)
b. Limited/Issue-Specific: IO focuses on a specific theme (WTO)
3. FUNCTION
a. Rule-Making Organization: make policy and set rules (UN)
b. Operational Organization: executes policy (IAEA)
4. DECISION MAKING AUTHORITY IOs are characterized by a mix of horizontal and vertical
authority
, a. Intergovernmental: decision taken by all member state based on
horizontal authority
Pooled sovereignty: states retain their decision-making
authority (UNGA)
b. Supranational: decision taken by organizational body designated by
member states based on vertical authority
Delegated Sovereignty to higher decision-making authority
(UNSC)
Characteristics of IOs
- Most IOs are regional
- Europe is the region with the highest density of IOs
- The number of IOs significantly increased after WW2
- There are more issue-specific than general purpose IOs
THREE FORCES OF IOs in world of politics
Obligation: once a state becomes a member of an IO, it accepts the rules and
obligations of that IO
o Direct: explicitly set out in the founding treaty and are known in
advance
o Indirect: obligations that arise throughout the course of operation,
thus open-ended
Compliance: follows the rules of an organization
o Explicit: act of consenting to be bound by these rules, choosing to
be part of IO
o Implicit: IOs influence states, that leads to their complaining
behavior, shape environment that states operate - may change
goals/objectives, making them comply
Enforcement
o Direct: e.g., UN Security Council
o Indirect: e.g., Public Shaming
Compliance without Enforcement: states comply with IOs and international law in
general
THREE VIEWS on the ROLE of IOs in world politics
1. IOs as ACTORS some form of autonomy, they can make independent decisions for themselves that member
states have to follow
a. Legally: IGOs are independent entities with legal personalities
ICJ opinion 1949 on Reparations for Injuries
ICC statute: ‘the court shall have international legal
personality’
b. Politically: independent actorness through social recognition
Collective actors that are able to do what their constituent
parts are unable to do on their own
Empirically evident through practices of influencing world
politics
, ICC arrest warrants, UNGA resolutions)
2. IOs as FORA space/place & time, IO doesn’t have a major role but just provides the “infrastructure” for
member states to act
o Physical forum/arena/ meeting places for debate and negotiations:
Exchange of interests and information
Policy making, states as relevant actors
Plenary organ UNGA- little-to-none executive power, or has
high standards for consensus decision making
3. IOs as INSTRUMENTS created by powerful member states to advance their interests
o IGOs are instruments in the hands of their member states pursue
their own personal interests/goals (international and domestic)
o Could be used to ensure compliance
SC and US invasion in Iraq 2003
IMF, WHO- China regarding Corona
LECTURE 2: IOs AND IR THEORY
The great debates - Depending on which lenses you use
- Why do states cooperate, i.e., Create and join IOs?
- What is the role of IOs in the world politics? How independent are they?
1. (NEO-) REALISM AND IOs
The international system is anarchic, i.e. without superior authority
o Anarchic: no superior/supernational authority that guides the
behavior of the state
- States: unitary actors – same interest to advance their own power
- Power: National interest – material factors: economic and military
IOs are ‘instruments’ for (powerful/hegemonic) states to pursue their national
interest
o Theory of hegemonic stability
o IOs being created by hegemonic states only if it’s in their interest
States make cost-benefit calculations and then decide whether it is wise to
‘use’(or create) IO or not
- Rational
e.g., foundation of UN: powerful nations at end of WW2, allied powers thought it
was in their nations interest to pursue their powers through IOs.
e.g., rising power of china, in the nations interest to advance power through
newly created AIB
2. (NEOLIBERAL) – INSTITUTIONALISM AND IOs
- States: unitary actors but interdependent
o operating/acting inside system through which their interdependence
is characterized
o what one state is doing does have an effect on other states, not just
balance of power but also other states actions and interests
- IOs enable cooperation among states by reducing transaction costs
o Different types of “cooperation games” (game theory)
o Uncertainty gets reduced, better communication of information =
trust
, o Principle Agent Theory: boundaries of institutionalism and liberalism
(state=agent)
3. LIBERALISM AND IOs
Open up the black pool box: states as plural actors
States are not all the same (different color pool balls)
democracies have different interests than autocracies
- Domestic institutions (parliament, media, lobby groups, civil society, etc.)
Cooperation because:
- Learning (from own mistakes, or mistakes of others)
- Shared Values (idealism) (not about power and materialism)
- Economic Interdependence (the more trade we have, the less war we
have)
Foundations:
-Human reason and belief in progress (Grotius,
Enlightenment)
-Immanuel Kant: democratic states will
peacefully cooperate
-Woodrow Wilson: creation of the League of
Nations (importance of international law) – 14
points in order to achieve peace: the league had to be found as an
institution/organization to bind states together
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