Introduction to International Organizations – Lecture Notes
Universiteit Leiden
Lecture 1: Introduction: Concepts and Characteristics
Content:
1. Definitions and concepts: what are IOs?
2. Categorization of IOs: Core characteristics
3. Three forces of IOs in World Politics
4. Three views on the role of IOs in World Politics
IGOs
• Intergovernmental Organizations, established by states
• Global: UN, IMF, WB
• Regional: EU, OAS, AU, ASEAN, etc.
• Several hundred organizations
NGOs
• Private, voluntary organizations, whose members are individuals or organizations that come
together to achieve a common purpose.
• Established by non-state actors
• Advocacy-orientated (non-profit): Greenpeace, Amnesty International, ICRC
• Profit-orientated: Apple, Microsoft, General Motors, Shell etc.
• Tens of thousands of organizations
What are IOs?
IOs are a specific class of international institutions (institution = a body of norms, rules and practices
that shape behaviour and expectations, without necessarily having the physical character of an
international organization. Another could be international regimes.)
IOs usually have
• At least 3 member states
• Regular state meetings
• Formal Rules and procedures (that define how decision making works within the
organization)
• Bureaucracy/headquarters
• Formal Treaty base
Categorization - How can we distinguish different IOs?
1. Membership
• Universal: every state can become a member (UN)
• Limited: only some states can become a member (EU) - Usually regional restrictions, or
based on certain issues, such as countries that border a river for instance.
2. Competence
• Comprehensive/general purpose: IO deals with many different issues and topics (UN)
• Limited/issue-specific: IO focuses on specific theme (WTO)
, 3. Function
• Rule-making organization: makes policy and sets rules (UN)
• Operational organization: executes policy (IAEA) set in treaty by member states
4. Decision-making authority
• Intergovernmental: decision taken by all member states based on horizontal authority
-> pooled sovereignty
Member states are required to make a decision together (f.i. through votes)
• Supranational: decision taken by organizational body designated by member states based on
vertical authority
-> delegated sovereignty
Member states have delegated part of their sovereignty to an organizational body. Body
doesn’t have to seek approval of the member states for every single decision they make.
*Categorizing IOs Exercise
Global Regional
General-purpose UN, EU, AU,
Issue-specific WTO, UNEP, NATO, ECOWAS,
IBRD, OHCHR, OSCE, NAFTA,
IPCC, IMF
Characteristics of IOs
• Most IOs are regional
• Europe is the region with the highest density of IOs
• The number of IOs significantly increased after WWII
• There are more issue-specific than general-purpose IOs
Three forces of IOs in world politics (Book)
Obligation Compliance Enforcement
• Once a state becomes • A state complies with/ • Very few IOs have this
a member of an IO, it follows the rules of an • Direct: Attack
accepts the rules of organization • Indirect: f.e. public
the IO • Explicit: States decide shaming mechanisms
• Direct: explicitly set whether or not they to enforce compliance
out in the founding want to be part of an with human rights
treaty, and are thus IO – Giving active standards
known in advance consent to follow the • Compliance without
• Indirect: Obligations rules of the IO enforcements: A lot of
that arise in the course • Implicit: IOs influence states actually comply
of the operation of the states by shaping the with rules even though
environment in which there’s no direct
, organization, and thus states are put. Which enforcement
are open ended. may change states mechanism
goals and objectives
-> leads to their
compliant behaviour
What can IOs actually do in world politics?
1.IOs as Actors:
• Legally: IGOs are independent entities with legal personality, which means that IOs are a
subject of international law and therefore enjoy certain rights and privileges and
responsibilities.
• Politically: independent actorness through social recognition,
- Collective actors that are able to do what their constituent parts are unable to do on their
own (they’re able to do more than their member states individually – they're actors.)
- Empirically evident through practices of influencing world politics (IIC arrest warrants; UN
GA resolutions)
IOs activities are always conditional upon states and states’ cooperation. (f.i. in the sense of
peacekeeping – The UN doesn’t have their own military force)
2.IOs as Fora/Forum
As meeting places where states debate and negotiate (Physical forum/arena) and make decisions
• Exchange of interests and information
• Policy-making
• (make resolutions)
-> States as relevant actors
Example: plenary organ (e.g. UN GA) -> IO has little to none executive powers or very high standards
for consensus decision making
3.IOs as Instruments (of powerful states in particular)
IGOs as instruments in the hands of their member states pursue their own personal interests. They
can also be used by other states to ensure other states’ compliance when settling dispute outcomes
for example.
Examples: SC and US invasion in Iraq 2003; IMF; WHO.
Lecture 2: IOs and IR theory
Content:
• The great debates:
Why do states cooperate, I.e. create and join IOs?
What is the role of IOs in world politics?
• (Neo-)Realism, (Neoliberal-)Institutionalism, Liberalism, Social constructivism, Critical
theories
, (Neo-)Realism and IOs
• The basic assumption that this theory departs from is that the international system is
anarchic, I.e. without superior authority. (There’s no grand authority, such as the leviathan)
• States are unitary actors: They all have the same interest: to advance their own power.
Realists define power mostly as material power (military force etc.)
• IOs are instruments for (powerful/hegemonic) states to pursue their national interest
(Theory of Hegemonic Stability)
To answer the question of why states cooperate, I.e. create and join IOs: They think they can
pursue their interests better through an IO; It’s beneficial. States make cost benefit
calculations and then decide whether it is wise to use an IO or not.
(Neoliberal-)Institutionalism and IOs
• States are unitary actors BUT at the same time they’re interdependent. They’re the same in
terms of shape and size but at the same time they’re acting within a system through which
their interdependence is characterized. What one state is doing, affects other states
• IOs enable cooperation among states by reducing transaction costs. This is connected to
cooperation games (game theory). They get together every once in a while and in that sense
one if the biggest transaction costs (uncertainty) gets reduced. When you get together again
and again, you increase the knowledge about the other states which makes it easier to
cooperate.
Liberalism and IOs
How do we conceive states in the international system? -> According to Liberalism, states are not
unitary, but plural actors. We have to open up the black box of states; States are not all the same,
(democracies do not have the same goals as autocracies). To them it matters what domestic
institutions look like. Parliaments, media, lobby groups, civil society; they influence the behaviour of
a state on an international platform.
Cooperation because of:
• Liberalists would argue that states can learn from previous interactions, mistakes (both
theirs or others)
• Some liberalists would argue that shared value is important. (idealism) It’s not just about
power and material interests, it’s about a shared value understanding that makes states
create IOs. (shared preferences)
• They would also argue that states are economically interdependent, especially democracies
and states that share the same economic system. (the more trade, the less war we have)
Foundations:
• Human reason and belief in progress (Grotius; Enlightenment) - By assuming you’ll learn
from past mistakes, you’ll work towards improvement.
• Immanuel Kant: democratic states will peacefully cooperate – The Kantian triangle of peace
• Woodrow Wilson: Creation of the League of Nations (importance of International Law) - In
order to achieve peace as an ideal shared value among the countries who want to join in this
league, the league as an institution had to be founded in order to bind member states
