International Law and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs) ^[1]

By Rom, Mark, Hidaka, Masaki, & Bzostek Walker, Rachel

Reused from Chapter 15 of Rom, Mark, Hidaka, Masaki, & Bzostek Walker, Rachel. (2022). Introduction to Political Science. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science under CC-BY 4.0 license. Access for free at https://openstax.org

Figure 5.1 According to the Seychelles News Agency, yellowfin tuna in the Indian Ocean is the most overfished tuna in the world. Under pressure from the European Union and numerous nongovernmental organizations, Indian Ocean Tuna Commission countries met in 2021 to discuss the sustainability of fishing practices.¹ In this photo, buyers and sellers negotiate prices of different varieties of tuna at a market in Mogadishu. (credit: "2013_03_16_Somalia_Fishing m" by AMISOM Public Information/Flickr, Public Domain)

Introduction

No individual or state “owns” the oceans and the wildlife in them. They are a shared, finite resource. Overfishing is an unsustainable global problem, especially now that technological advancements allow thousands of fish to be harvested at once. Only through the establishment of rules can the fish continue to be a source of food and income for future generations.

In a system of sovereign states, managing international resources like the fish in the sea is no easy task. As discussed in earlier chapters, state sovereignty is the concept that states have an inherent right to independence and a right to formulate policies and take actions that they deem to be in their own national interests. Managing international resources requires navigating the claims sovereign countries have on those resources, understanding the needs of individuals who depend upon them for their livelihood, and thinking about the sustainability of those resources for the future. No individual state can do this alone.

International law and non-state actors, especially international organizations, participate in global governance in order to address complex issues like managing global fishing or preventing conflict. Along with governments, thousands of organizations engage in collaborative problem-solving, encourage broad and transparent international communication, and assist those in need. By creating and following norms and rules and advocating for the impoverished and marginalized, international law and non-state actors shape state behavior and promote a more peaceful and prosperous international system. The importance of international law and non-state actors to the outcomes of international relations is a subject of some debate among proponents of the various theories of international relations, but there is little doubt that the era of globalization has enhanced their visibility and influence.

5.1 The Problem of Global Governance

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define global governance.
• Define and give examples of collective goods and the tragedy of the commons.
• Discuss global governance as a response to the anarchic nature of the international system.
• Identify the actors involved in global governance.

States do not operate in isolation. They exist in a global community of sovereign states. As in all communities, each individual actor has their own motivations or goals and is impacted by the broader shared environment. Though the international system is anarchic—that is, there is no overarching international authority to help promote peace and prosperity among states—each state’s efforts to achieve those goals is to some degree dependent upon the actions of other states in the system. Recognizing that the achievement of prosperity and security requires shared action, the global community sets rules and norms of behavior to give some structure to the anarchic system. This global governance is the process by which sovereign states accrue rights and duties in the international community. It provides “peace and security, justice and mediation systems for conflict, functioning markets and unified standards for trade and industry,”² helping states thrive even under conditions of anarchy.

Like other communities, the international system is tasked with convincing individual members to take some responsibility for solving collective problems. This task is especially difficult when individual members somehow profit from behavior that exacerbates these problems. The tragedy of the commons³ occurs when there is a rivalry for limited resources to which it is inherently difficult to restrict access and individual states prioritize their own short-term economic survival over broader long-term community interests, interests that are often referred to as collective goods. Individual states have incentives to take actions in order to secure these goods for their own benefit that may negatively impact others. For example, individual states may prioritize cost savings for manufacturing plants that use the cheapest energy source, even if doing so contributes to continuing damage to the common environment. China, for instance, engaged in rapid industrialization, dramatically increasing the size of its economy and the quality of life for the Chinese people; however, in the process, China became the world’s leading producer of air pollution. Air pollution cannot be contained to the boundaries of the country producing the pollution, and clean air is a collective good. International issues like air pollution, where one state’s actions to mitigate its role in intensifying a problem may be ineffective if its neighbor does not take similar action, illustrate the complexities of the tragedy of the commons.

The anarchic nature of the international system complicates efforts to persuade states to recognize their contribution to a common problem and to take responsibility for their actions. Collective goods benefit everyone, regardless of whether they participate in securing them, and it can be difficult to motivate individual states to make sacrifices to secure those goods if other states are already working on it—a phenomenon called free riding, which is discussed in more depth in Chapter 6: The Fundamentals of Group Political Activity. Through global governance, the international community helps states and people obtain these public goods while maintaining the principle of state sovereignty on which the international system is based.

Multiple actors take part in global governance. States themselves, both as individual actors and through their participation in organizations with other states, are the primary actors. Nongovernmental organizations, multinational corporations, national groups, and religious actors also contribute to global governance. International cooperation among these various actors is needed to reach agreement—to develop international law that sets limits on who can do what and establishes punishments for exceeding those limits. Disruptive groups that pose a threat to the common peace and prosperity can only be countered through global governance.

5.2 International Law

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define and identify sources of international law.
• Explain how state sovereignty informs international law.
• Differentiate between the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
• Discuss the development of key areas of international law, including the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, and human rights law.

International law is a set of formal and informal rules that loosely govern the international system, setting parameters around the conduct of state and non-state actors. In the absence of a central global government, international law plays a critical role in increasing the predictability of international relations, helping to counteract the anarchy of the system by prescribing norms and setting expectations of behavior. It facilitates state interactions in “common” places, such as the air and the sea, and helps promote peace and lessen the impact of conflict. International laws govern airline travel, commerce, maritime law, human rights, the development and use of weapons, and the environment, among other areas.

International law is not found in a single book or document; rather, it is the sum total of international treaties, other international agreements, and customary law, which is derived from the long-time practices of states (see Chapter 11: Courts and Law). International law has developed out of functional necessity, as in the cases of international transportation, commerce, or communications, for example, or because of broad consensus around moral or immoral behavior, as in issues of human rights and the laws of war.

Two courts adjudicate international law: the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which has jurisdiction over disputes between states, and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has jurisdiction over individual criminal behavior such as war crimes or genocide. Some other international organizations such as the European Union and the World Trade Organization also have legal systems that adjudicate disputes between member states.

How Does International Law Establish the Rights and Obligations of States?

The recognition of state sovereignty provides the foundation for international law. Typically, sovereign states willingly enter into agreements that they believe will benefit them in some way, with the understanding that by signing a treaty they agree to its terms, including obligations and constraints on their behavior. The United Nations (UN), a global organization bringing together nearly every state in the world to promote peace and stability, hosts a repository of more than 500 active treaties across every conceivable issue in international relations.⁴ Signatory states may monitor or punish states that do not fulfill their treaty obligations. In this way, all individual, sovereign parties to a treaty ensure that they are treated fairly under the terms of the agreement and that they receive the benefits they are due.

Some treaties require states to modify their domestic policies. For instance, states that sign the Paris Climate Accord commit to solve a common problem, climate change, by taking certain steps in their own country. Signatory countries that fail to take those steps may be acting within their sovereign rights, but if they signed the treaty, those domestic actions (or that domestic inaction) are now regulated by international law. States that sign international conventions like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) commit to follow the guidelines set forth in those documents.

Examples of International Law

Three particularly well-developed areas of international law are the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, and human rights law. They illustrate how functional needs and moral obligations have driven the development of international law and helped states acquire global goods.

The United Nations convened the first conference on the law of the sea in 1958. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was signed in 1982 and came into force in 1994. Among other things, the UNCLOS clarifies where countries’ boundaries extend into the ocean, who “owns” the fish in the water, and who has the right to use sea traffic lanes. UNCLOS identifies state “rights, freedoms and obligations” in areas such as shipping, fishing, wrecks and cultural heritage, and the protection of the marine environment.⁵

All UN member states sign the Geneva Conventions, a series of treaties and protocols that codify international humanitarian law. Through the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the first Geneva Convention was signed in 1864, allowing noncombatants to treat wounded soldiers in the battlefield. There are now four Geneva Convention treaties—the fourth of which establishes a legal definition of war crimes—all focused on protecting civilians and prisoners of war during military conflicts.

The Geneva Conventions serve as the basis for a much broader body of international human rights law that includes nine core human rights treaties that extend beyond wartime behavior. These treaties recognize the “inalienable rights” of people and codify crimes against humanity. They call upon all states to prevent genocide, which they define as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,”⁶ and to punish those who perpetrate it.

All UN member states have ratified at least one of the nine core human rights treaties, and 80 percent have ratified four or more, accepting the obligations and duties under international law to respect, protect, and promote human rights.⁷ In 2001, the international community developed a principle called Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which justifies international intervention to protect human rights. Arising from the horror at the complacency of the international community during the Rwandan genocide and the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s, in 2005 world leaders at the UN World Summit unanimously agreed to adopt R2P.⁸ The philosophy behind R2P is that “state sovereignty carrie[s] with it the obligation of the State to protect its own people, and that if the State [is] unwilling or unable to do so, the responsibility shift[s] to the international community to use diplomatic, humanitarian and other means to protect them.”⁹ R2P obliges state governments to prevent crimes against humanity, and if they do not, it specifies that the United Nations Security Council may intervene to protect at-risk populations.

How Is International Law Enforced?

Enforcing international law requires the will and power of states. This can be a challenge for a variety of reasons including the risk of hostile confrontation, the potential damage to valuable international relationships, and the reluctance to interfere with state sovereignty by intervening in domestic affairs. States are rarely punished for violations of international human rights law that happen within their borders.

Beginning in 2017, the Myanmar government launched a campaign against the Rohingya, an ethnic minority, and in the years since observers have accused the government of burning down villages and engaging in systematic rape and torture in violation of human rights treaties Myanmar has signed. In cases like these, in which a government violates an international law within its own borders, the international community may be unwilling or unable to enforce treaty obligations.¹⁰ The groups suffering these human rights abuses are typically without political or military power and have little recourse if the international community is unwilling to come to their aid, even if there is broad agreement that international law is being broken.

International law is the “judicial branch” of global governance. Within a country, judicial decisions are meaningful when, if necessary, the executive branch has the ability to enforce them. Because there is no executive branch in the global governance system, international laws are difficult to enforce. Sometimes powerful states decide to enforce international law, but this is not guaranteed and often depends upon power imbalances (powerful states are more likely to get away with noncompliance than weak states), state interests (states that are allied with powerful states may get away with noncompliance more than enemies), and the perceived ease of halting the bad behavior.

Figure 5.2 In August 1990, Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, invaded Kuwait, violating international law. The UN Security Council set a January 15, 1991, deadline for Iraqi withdrawal. On January 17, a UN coalition of 39 countries, led by the United States, launched Operation Desert Storm to force Iraq out of Kuwait and show “intolerance for military aggression and the strengthening of international cohesion, international law and liberal institutions, including the UN.”¹¹ In this photo, soldiers and civilians raise American, British, Saudi, and Kuwaiti flags to celebrate following the retreat of Iraqi forces from Kuwait. (credit: “American, British, Saudi and Kuwaiti flags are held aloft by celebrating soldiers and civilians following the retreat of Iraqi forces from Kuwait as a result of Operation Desert Storm” by Cw02 Ed Bailey/Department of Defense, American Forces Information Service, Public Domain)

The International Court of Justice (ICJ)

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), also called the World Court, is headquartered in the Peace Palace in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICJ was the original judicial institution of the United Nations.

Figure 5.3 The Peace Palace in The Hague is the home of the International Court of Justice. (credit: “Peace Palace” by Cliché Lybil Ber/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

The ICJ was founded in 1945 to resolve disputes between states. Any UN member state can bring a case to the ICJ. The ICJ’s jurisdiction is limited to interstate disputes and advisory opinions for United Nations bodies. The most common types of cases states bring before the ICJ involve boundary and resource disputes. About a third of UN member states—not including the United States—have signed a document agreeing to be bound by the ICJ’s rulings. Since its founding, the ICJ has issued approximately 160 rulings, including both resolutions to interstate disputes and advisory opinions.¹²

The International Criminal Court (ICC)

When egregious human rights crimes are perpetuated on domestic groups and do not cross state boundaries, they are particularly challenging to punish as the doctrine of state sovereignty protects internal affairs. Following the 1994 Rwandan genocide and “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, the UN established international criminal tribunals to help bring the perpetrators to justice and to end impunity, or the lack of punishment for criminal behavior. Given the costs and logistics associated with these temporary and issue-specific courts, in 1998 the United Nations Rome Statute established the International Criminal Court (ICC) as a permanent court to oversee such cases.

The ICC was designed to address problems outside the scope of the ICJ, particularly to bring to justice individuals accused of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. In 2018, the ICC’s jurisdiction was expanded to cover the crime of aggression. Thus far, the ICC has heard 30 cases and is investigating multiple others.¹³

Over 120 states are party to the Rome Statute, but powerful states with global reach like Russia, China, and the United States have been reluctant to recognize the legitimacy of the ICC, fearing it will infringe on state sovereignty and be used as a political weapon against soldiers or other nationals abroad. The United States has established a network of bilateral treaties with countries around the world promising not to prosecute any US citizen through the ICC.¹⁴

How Does International Law Contribute to Global Governance?

As doctoral researcher Heath Pickering notes, “agreements to norms and treaties have . . . increased international institutions, given rise to non-state actors, and rapidly developed the contemporary customary and treaty based rules system.”¹⁵ Given the relative lack of enforcement mechanisms, state compliance with international law is surprisingly high. Most states comply with their obligations most of the time, and state leaders typically couch their actions in the language of international law, feeling compelled to justify their behavior according to accepted norms. The more states comply and feel the need to explain their behavior in common terms accepted by the international community, the more predictable international relations will be.

5.3 The United Nations and Global Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Define intergovernmental organizations and discuss their role in global governance.
• Discuss the purpose and history of the United Nations.
• Describe the structure of the United Nations.
• Explain the role of peacekeepers.
• Analyze the sources and limits of the power of the United Nations.

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are groups made up of member states that are held together by formal agreement. The number of intergovernmental organizations has increased dramatically since World War II. IGOs help the international community focus on issues and coordinate actions even when individual states’ interests may push them to act in ways that are incompatible with common goals. Each member state’s government selects delegates to represent its interests at IGO meetings.

There are dozens of IGOs. This section focuses on global IGOs—that is, IGOs whose membership is open to states around the world. The scope of global IGO activity varies widely, from technical organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Hydrographic Organization to organizations with a specific, narrow focus, such as the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. While some global IGOs have a relatively small number of members, 193 out of 195 recognized sovereign countries in the world are members of the largest global IGO, the United Nations,¹⁶ and 164 are members of the World Trade Organization.¹⁷

With its worldwide reach, the United Nations contributes to global governance more than any other IGO. Since its beginning in 1945, its membership has grown as the number of sovereign states has increased. The newest members are Montenegro and South Sudan. The Holy See and Palestine are nonvoting “observer” members.¹⁸ The UN addresses every conceivable issue in international relations, from peace and security to migration and refugees, law, food, development, energy, and human rights, among others. Dozens of smaller global IGOs are housed within the UN framework.

The Founding and Mission of the UN

The United Nations was created after World War II to ensure international peace and stability. In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles, which ended World War I, established a global IGO called the League of Nations. The purpose of the League was to facilitate good relations among countries of the world and to punish aggression. To deter aggression, the League used the principle of collective security, requiring member states to jointly retaliate against any aggressive action of another state. Because the United States Senate refused to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, the United States did not join the League of Nations. Ultimately, the League was ineffective in punishing aggressive states, and expansionist powers Japan, Germany, and Italy all withdrew from the League prior to World War II.

While some might view the outbreak of World War II less than 20 years after the conclusion of the First World War as a failure of the idea behind the League, the leaders of the WWII Allied states saw the outbreak as evidence of the need for an even stronger global organization, and in response they created the United Nations. United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt committed US membership and backing, and the US Congress agreed to join the United Nations. While the League had required unanimous agreement among its members to take action, the UN requires only a majority vote for most resolutions. A two-thirds majority was required for issues of peace and security, admission of new members, and budgetary matters. Initially, the United Nations had 51 member states, mostly from Europe.

Because the United Nations was founded in part on the principle of the sovereignty of member states, it is not and cannot become a “world government” with ultimate authority over its members. UN decisions are not binding on member states without the consent of those states. Like international law, the UN contributes to global governance by setting obligations and rules of behavior for member states. The United Nations Charter recognizes the rights of sovereign states and their obligations as members of the international community while emphasizing the importance of multilateral cooperation as the cornerstone to peace and prosperity for all. Member states commit to use peaceful means to settle disputes and to uphold and support UN decisions. The Charter specifies that the UN may intervene to stop acts of aggression or threats to the peace and that member states are only to use force in self-defense.

The UN website displays the organization’s slogan: “peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet.” The three overarching goals of the United Nations are promoting peace, ensuring human rights, and achieving sustainable development with a focus on protecting the environment—all collective goods that can be elusive in a system of sovereign states each concerned only with its own survival and well-being.

In service of the goal to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,”¹⁹ the UN has been involved in peacekeeping activities in areas of interstate conflict since the late 1940s.

In 1948, UN member states signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDHR), which lays out principles such as the right to freedom of religion, freedom of family choices, and freedom to travel. It became the foundational document for the protection of human rights worldwide.²⁰

Figure 5.4 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of US President Franklin Roosevelt, served as the chairperson for the delegation that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.²¹ (credit: “Eleanor Roosevelt holding poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in English), Lake Success, New York. November 1949” by FDR Presidential Library & Museum/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Recognition of the dignity of each person and their inalienable rights sets the stage for many other UN activities. The UN’s ability to coordinate international solutions to problems and to marshal funds and expertise has helped many states, especially in the developing world, achieve better economic, educational, health, and environmental outcomes.

How Is the UN Structured?

The UN is organized into six main bodies: the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the Trusteeship Council, and the International Court of Justice. In addition, dozens of related IGOs work on issues in conjunction with or under the auspices of the United Nations.²² The International Court of Justice was discussed above. This section turns to the other five main UN bodies.

Figure 5.5 The United Nations is organized into six main bodies. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)

The General Assembly

Each of the 193 UN member states has equal representation, regardless of its size or wealth, in the primary deliberative organ of the United Nations, the General Assembly (GA). The GA serves as a venue for states to discuss the most pressing international challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, armed conflict, illicit trade, poverty, and hunger, as well as systemic problems such as wealth inequality and intolerance. Every state in the world faces these troubles to varying degrees, and thus the quest for solutions is a quest to provide collective goods. At its annual meeting, GA members deliberate policies and goals for the international community, elect members to the Security Council, and discuss reports from other UN organs.

The Security Council

The Security Council performs the UN’s most crucial peacemaking work. Fifteen member states sit on the Security Council. Ten are elected by the General Assembly to two-year terms, while the other five seats, known as the Permanent Five (P5), belong to the victors of World War II and the primary architects of the United Nations—the United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The P5 have veto power over any Security Council action. Even if the other 14 states on the Council agree with a given action, the veto of any one of the P5 will block the action. Admission to membership in the United Nations requires the affirmative vote of nine Security Council members and no vetoes from within the P5.

Though the General Assembly has more than tripled in size, the structure of the Security Council has not changed since the founding of the UN in 1945. There is ongoing discussion about increasing the size of the Security Council beyond 15 states, and some advocate for expanding the P5 since the Security Council has no permanent representative from Latin America, Africa, or the Middle East.

The Security Council monitors international conflict, facilitates diplomatic resolutions to disputes, and may place sanctions on member states engaged in violence. To stop ongoing or impending conflict or violations of international law, the Security Council has authorized military intervention (e.g., in response to North Korea’s aggression against South Korea in 1950 and in response to Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait), levied sanctions (e.g., in 2006 against Iran for refusing to stop its uranium enrichment process in its quest for nuclear weapons), and imposed arms embargoes (e.g., against Serbia in 1998 for ongoing aggression against Kosovo). The Security Council also provides a space for multilateral discussion about transnational threats to international security such as terrorism, poverty, migration and refugees, and trafficking of goods and people.

The Economic and Social Council

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is a primary driver of global governance policy aimed at dealing with the collective problems facing the world community. Former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld explained, “While the Security council exists primarily for settling conflicts . . . the Economic and Social Council exists primarily to eliminate the causes of conflicts.”²³ ECOSOC’s responsibilities span economic and social issues. Dozens of subagencies are housed under the ECOSOC umbrella, including regional development agencies and issue-specific organizations. In particular, ECOSOC focuses on “development,” or raising the standard of living for people around the world through economic expansion and improved access to resources common throughout wealthier states, such as electricity, sanitation, education, and health care. In recent years ECOSOC has focused on how to incorporate care for the environment in the drive for economic prosperity, a concept known as sustainable development.

Since 2015, the United Nations has focused on helping member states achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 objectives that broadly address “ending poverty, protecting the planet and improving the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere.”²⁴ These goals are part of the UN’s “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” ECOSOC coordinates the work on these goals and collects the data required to measure progress toward their achievement.

The Secretariat

The UN Secretariat performs administrative work. Upon the recommendation of the Security Council, the General Assembly elects the head of the Secretariat, the Secretary-General, for a five-year renewable term. The Secretary-General engages in leadership, diplomacy, and public outreach to promote the UN; to draw international attention to urgent issues; and to raise money for UN activities.

The Trusteeship Council

At the time of the founding of the UN in 1946, much of the world was under European colonial control. The Trusteeship Council was formed to allow the UN to administer the former colonial territories that had belonged to the defeated powers of World War II: Germany, Italy, and Japan. All territories placed in trust to the United Nations subsequently attained independence. While it still exists per the UN Charter, the Trusteeship Council is currently inactive.

What Tools Does the UN Have to Help Keep Peace?

The main mission of the UN is to keep the peace by enhancing transparency, providing countries with a forum in which to peacefully resolve disputes, and engaging in projects aimed at alleviating the causes of conflict. The Security Council can send UN representatives—troops, police, observers, and civilians—to conflict zones. UN peacekeepers are deployed at the request of the warring parties and with the authorization of the Security Council. Three guiding principles undergird the UN deployment of peacekeepers: 1) consent of the parties, 2) impartiality, and 3) non-use of force except in self-defense or in defense of a Security Council mandate.²⁵

Figure 5.6 UN Peacekeepers are often referred to as “blue helmets.” (credit: “Over 200 Nepalese peacekeepers arrive in Juba” by Isaac Billy/UN Photo, CC BY 2.0. Photo courtesy: USIP, www.usip.org)

In 2020, there were approximately a dozen ongoing UN peacekeeping missions, mostly in the Middle East and Africa. The first UN peacekeeping mission was in 1948, monitoring the armistice between Israel and its Arab neighbors. In 1949, peacekeepers were sent to the border between India and Pakistan to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Kashmir. Both of those missions were small in scale—unarmed peacekeepers were sent to monitor an existing ceasefire. Both are still active. More than 3,000 UN peacekeepers from 120 countries have died in this service.²⁶

UN Specialized Agencies and Related IGOs

Numerous IGOs work to address specific global issues. Some, like the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), operate independently but share information with the UN and help support the UN’s mission. Global IGOs such as the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are specialized agencies operating within the UN framework. These agencies act autonomously, with their own constitutions, leaders, headquarters, and bureaucratic organizations.

Table 5.1 highlights the mission, accomplishments, and goals of the three most significant global IGOs: the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Working on the collective good issues of global health, economic development, and international trade, respectively, these organizations provide guidelines for state behavior, encourage and enable countries to share information and data, and collaborate on policy making.

Table 5.1 Major Global IGOs

Show Me the Data

The World Bank Open Data website provides free and open access to innovative visuals that tell the stories of global development data. You can explore a walkthrough of the 2020 Sustainable Development Goals at the World Bank Data blog, where you can see examples of these detailed and interactive data visualizations.

What Constrains the Effectiveness of the UN and Global IGOs?

In IGOs, sovereign states represent their own interests, bringing their own cultures and ideas to discussions of global governance, and IGOs are limited in their ability to intervene in the domestic affairs of member states. Although the purpose of IGOs is to help states work cooperatively, and though they strive to help states coordinate activities in pursuit of collective goods, in most circumstances, states place their own desires and interests above those of the broader international community. For example, ideally all states would work together to promote collective security by punishing aggressor states; in practice, states often cannot agree on what constitutes aggression or are unwilling to hold their allies accountable. Similarly, global poverty might be more easily eliminated if all countries worked together and pooled resources, but most countries are anxious to keep the gains of prosperity to themselves and dedicate only a small percentage of their wealth to help other countries. Countries that refused to lock down or promote vaccination might prolong the COVID-19 pandemic despite the actions of other states following WHO guidelines to control it.

Funding is another limitation on the effectiveness of the United Nations. UN member states pay dues based on their wealth relative to other member states. The United States pays 22 percent of the operating expenses of the United Nations and almost 28 percent of its peacekeeping budget. China now pays the second highest amount toward the peacekeeping budget, at 15 percent.³³

Another limit on the UN is its inability to enforce its decisions or rules. In many ways, it is an aspirational body. The General Assembly passes resolutions, but often without any real expectation that they will be implemented and without the ability to impose consequences if they are not. Sometimes the Security Council or others working on treaties or building international law use those resolutions to help justify sanctions or other punitive measures against states. According to the United Nations, GA resolutions “have been a constant driver for the development of space law and international cooperation of Member States in their space activities . . . Many provisions of the General Assembly resolutions related to outer space have become widely accepted by the international space community.”³⁴

5.4 How Do Regional IGOs Contribute to Global Governance?

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the purpose of regional IGOs and give examples.
• Differentiate between the missions of NATO and the EU.
• Explain how the missions of NATO and the EU have evolved over time.
• Describe causes of tension within regional IGOs.
• Discuss the ways regional IGOs contribute to global governance.

Much of the work of global governance is done at the regional level. IGOs such as the Arab League, the Organization of American States (OAS), and the African Union (AU) have extended the UN model to regional affairs, and IGOs like the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Mercado Común del Sur (MERCOSUR), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have extended it to subregional affairs. Regional IGOs work to improve the quality of life for people in a given region by encouraging economic development, facilitating trade, and/or enhancing security. They seek to lessen conflict by enabling cooperation and dialogue between neighboring states and by promoting common interests. Regional IGOs may become involved in any issue of common interest to states in the region, such as protection, trade, climate change, migration, or human trafficking. Military alliances focus on the coordination of military policy, while economic IGOs focus more on promoting trade and economic progress. IGOs composed of mostly democratic states can promote and reinforce democratic norms, punishing member states that stray from democratic practices. The African Union took just such steps when it responded to the 2013 military coup in Egypt by suspending Egypt’s membership in the IGO.³⁵

Over time, regional IGOs may broaden their scope, increasing the levels of cooperation between member states. The idea that cooperation on small, discrete policy areas such as coordinating postal services or air traffic control can create mutual trust and evolve into cooperation on larger, more complex issues is called functionalism. This is illustrated in the case of the European Union, where the original economic union evolved to include a multitude of domestic and foreign policy issues such as the environment, health, labor, security, and immigration. Ultimately, what began as a union of states concerned with individual and regional economic growth developed into an organization espousing common values and objectives that extended to a wide variety of issues traditionally within the sole purview of individual sovereign states.

NATO

The largest and oldest regional IGO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, NATO is the most powerful military alliance in the world, with 30 member states and combined forces of over two million troops. In 2019, NATO states accounted for 54 percent of global military spending.³⁶

In an anarchic system, security IGOs increase predictability by making public member states’ military commitments. Alliances are designed to serve as deterrents against attacks on any member states, as potential attackers know they would face the combined strength of the alliance in response. Alliances also coordinate policy responses to international events and to the foreign policy decisions of non-allied states, thus making accidental or impulsive military action less likely.

NATO’s Purpose and Current Mission

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal formed NATO in 1949 to safeguard US allies in Europe by deterring a Soviet attack. In 1952, Greece and Turkey joined NATO, and Germany joined three years later. Article 5 of the NATO Treaty promised collective defense, assuring members that “an attack on one or more of them . . . shall be considered an attack against them all.”³⁷ The individual security concerns of each NATO country were subsumed by what they considered the shared existential threat of communist expansion or Soviet nuclear attack.

Figure 5.7 US Secretary of State Dean Acheson signs the Washington Treaty creating NATO in 1949. (credit: “Secretary of State Dean Acheson signs the Washington Treaty, April 4, 1949. President Harry Truman and Vice President Alben Barkley are standing next to him,” by Records of the Office of the Chief Signal Officer/The US National Archives and Records Administration, CC0 1.0)

The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, creating 15 new states, the largest of which is Russia. Instead of dissolving in response, NATO expanded, ultimately including both many Eastern European states that had previously been allied with the Soviet Union and some former Soviet states. Part of NATO’s original purpose was to forbid “the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent” and to encourage “European political integration.”³⁸ Thus, after 1991 NATO offered membership to any state that could meet the political and financial obligations of membership. After the end of the Cold War, NATO’s mission shifted from fighting communism to preserving the general security of member states and the international community.

With the addition of North Macedonia in 2020, NATO had 30 member states. As of this writing, three additional countries are seeking membership, and another 30, including most of the states of the former Soviet Union, have joined NATO’s “Partnership for Peace” program.

Figure 5.8 Since its formation in 1949, NATO has expanded to include 30 member states. (attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license)

NATO invoked the collective defense agreement of Article 5 for the first time following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. In response to those attacks, the United States attacked the Taliban government in Afghanistan. The United Nations authorized a NATO-led peace-building force to establish a new government and stabilize the country.

NATO can deploy a unified command military force to engage in armed conflict. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has intervened in international crises, monitored security threats, trained security forces, and undertaken peace-building in Kosovo (since 1999) and Afghanistan (2003–2021).³⁹

What Kinds of Conflicts Exist within NATO?

As with all IGOs, NATO’s primary challenge is managing the varied interests of its members and creating common policy acceptable to all. However, in security organizations like NATO, the influence of the most powerful state is more pronounced. Throughout the Cold War, NATO depended on the promise of US military force. The United States dictates NATO policy more than, say, Germany dictates what happens in the EU and more than the UK influences what happens at the United Nations. In the post-Soviet world, and with the addition of members outside Western Europe, US power in NATO has weakened as the organization has had to balance the needs and concerns of other member states.

NATO allies do not always agree. Although NATO has insisted that it is not an “enemy” of Russia, Russia’s aggressive actions in Crimea and toward Ukraine have caused concern among many NATO member states, especially those with borders near Russia. In 2016, NATO called Russia a “challenge [to] the Alliance” and “a source of regional instability.”⁴⁰ However, some members of NATO, including some larger Western European states, are reluctant to take any action that might be seen as aggressive toward Russia.⁴¹ Varying conceptions of security threats are natural given the differing size and geographic location of member states. These variations complicate the creation of unified policy priorities and responses.

Another source of conflict is burden sharing, that is, how much each country should contribute to the funding and operations of the alliance. The two wealthiest NATO countries, the United States and Germany, each pay 16 percent of the operating costs, and each country is called to allocate 2 percent of its GDP to defense expenditures. Due to the size of the United States’ GDP and its allocation of 3.4 percent of its GDP to defense, in 2020 the United States’ spending on defense made up 69 percent of the overall NATO defense spending.⁴²

Regional Security IGOs Since the Forming of NATO

Many regional multipurpose IGOs, such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the African Union, have a security function within a broader framework of regional cooperation and promotion of the common good.⁴³ The United Nations has called upon regional organizations to support peacekeeping work both on their own and in cooperation with the UN. At an August 2015 summit, then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, “The United Nations increasingly shares responsibility for peace and security with regional organizations. We should do everything possible to help them resolve regional problems and to include the states concerned in solutions. At the same time, regional organizations should continue contributing to United Nations peace and security efforts.”⁴⁴

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) calls itself “the world’s largest security organization.”⁴⁵ It works on a broad range of security initiatives, including arms control, terrorism prevention, preventative diplomacy, and peace building. It has offices in member countries that monitor current and potential zones of conflict.

Figure 5.9 The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has supported the Somali National Army in its efforts to counter militant groups in the ongoing Somali Civil War. (credit: “On night operations with the African Union Mission in Somalia 11” by AMISOM Public Information/Flickr, Public Domain)

Africa has been the most conflict-prone continent in the 21st century. The African Union, the largest and best-resourced regional organization on the continent, has a spotty regional security and peacekeeping record. In 2002, the AU ratified the African Peace and Security Architecture plan, which enlisted regional economic organizations and other partners to address security challenges on the continent.⁴⁶ Subregional economic organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community have played an increasingly prominent role in handling security issues, particularly in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Lesotho, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The European Union

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the European Union (EU) is the largest and most influential regional economic IGO. Since the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (a move referred to as “ Brexit”) in January of 2020, the EU includes 27 countries across the European continent. The EU began as a small-scale economic organization, but its mission has expanded to promote peace and solidarity among European countries.

Although it recognizes the sovereignty of its member states, including their right to withdraw from the organization, the EU has moved far closer to the union of countries than has any other IGO. Most EU countries have adopted the common currency, the euro, and most allow citizens to travel and work across borders within the 26 countries, made up of most EU countries and a few non-EU countries, known as the Schengen Area. Countries that apply for admission to the EU must meet certain entrance criteria, including an established free-market economy and a democratic government. Candidate countries must adopt national legislation that aligns with admission criteria; hence applications may take years to finalize.

The Purpose of the EU

In 1951, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands formed the European Union to support their economic recovery from the devastation of World War II. Over the next four decades, the countries’ economies became increasingly integrated. The Maastricht Treaty of 1993, which introduced the common currency and a commitment to common security and foreign policies, established the current structure of the EU.

EU member states commit to a common set of values, stated in Article 2 of the EU treaty and reinforced in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, that they consider central to European life: “a society in which inclusion, tolerance, justice, solidarity and non-discrimination prevail.”⁴⁷ In addition to affirming human rights guarantees such as freedom of expression and freedom from torture, the Charter outlaws the death penalty, specifies the equality of the sexes, and protects cultural heritage.⁴⁸

The Organizational Structure of the EU

Five main bureaucratic and political organs oversee and help guide EU activities and policies. Leaders of European states sit on the European Council, which meets several times a year and, working with the European Parliament, sets the broad priorities of the EU.

European citizens directly elect the 705 members of the European Parliament to five-year terms. These members represent seven political groups from left to right on the political spectrum. The European Parliament plays both policy-making and budget-oversight roles. A part of the EU executive branch, the European Commission, promotes EU interests. The European Parliament elects a president to head the 27-member College of Commissioners for a five-year term. The Commission implements EU legislation, represents the EU internationally, and allocates funding for EU projects. Member states nominate commissioners, who are then approved by the European Parliament and serve as the bureaucratic heads of various policy agencies within the EU.

The Council of the European Union works more like the United Nations, where each member state represents its own interests to the whole. The Council of the EU is a policy-making body that, along with the European Parliament, discusses and passes laws for the EU. Its members are empowered to commit their home states to any decisions the Council makes.

Located in Luxembourg, the Court of Justice of the EU settles disputes arising under the laws of the European Union. The Court can interpret, find countries in violation of, and sanction those who disobey that law.

EU Priorities

No issue is beyond the scope of the European Union. In many ways it functions as a state in the international system, for its members coordinate policies and share common positions on international issues. The EU develops economic, defense/security, foreign, immigration, and labor policies that apply to each member state. Independence of action in any of these areas would be a concern to the organization. Thus, while member states retain their sovereignty in some senses, the EU has the ability to interfere in domestic issues and to punish noncompliance.

Annually, the European Parliament publishes a list of issues that will be on the EU agenda for the coming year. In 2021, the issues included pandemic-related topics such as access to the COVID-19 vaccine and helping economies recover, social and humanitarian issues such as access to food, issues of discrimination, cultural issues including the state of the performing arts, and “some of the big background changes shaping the world we live in today—the digital, environmental and geo-political challenges ahead, from Europe’s borders to its transatlantic relationship.”⁴⁹ Because the primary mission of the EU is to ensure the peace and prosperity of Europe, anything that threatens that mission is an issue of importance for the organization.

What Kinds of Conflicts Exist within the EU?

When 27 countries, each with its own goals and ambitions, attempt to coordinate a unified response to common issues, tensions and conflicts are inevitable. Addressing the needs and desires of every EU member state and trying to reach agreement on a common policy is difficult, especially when the organization’s mission incorporates so many different policy areas. The economies, politics, and cultures of the EU states differ, and these variations complicate efforts to create a “European identity” beyond the identity of the member states.⁵⁰

The EU’s unification of so many traditional state functions, including economic and foreign policies, under a supranational umbrella has led to some backlash. Economic pressures on national governments can lessen the perceived benefit of being a part of the EU. Domestic constituents of wealthier states, who believe they are losing their sovereign identity and subsidizing poorer and weaker states, may become convinced that EU membership is no longer in their country’s best interest. Although only the United Kingdom has entirely withdrawn from EU membership, political groups in many member states include anti–European Union (“Euroskeptic”) sentiment in their platforms.

The loss of the United Kingdom, a founding member and one of the wealthiest and most powerful states in the EU, represents a significant setback, and managing relations between the UK and the EU in the aftermath of Brexit is an ongoing challenge.

Over time the EU has expanded to include states that have not traditionally displayed the strongest records on democracy or human rights. Democratic backsliding in member states Poland and Hungary and the rising strength of populist and nativist movements in other EU countries threaten democratic norms and institutions.

The growth and aggressiveness of Russia and, to a lesser extent, China also pose foreign policy challenges to the EU. Prior to Brexit, some international relations literature discussed the EU as a unified great power capable of acting as a counterweight to Russia or China in international relations. Determining the appropriate role for the EU and how it should address different international relations challenges remains a vital task for the organization.⁵¹ As former High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Javier Solana notes: “In order to be an international actor, the EU must act in unison and speak with one voice. If each member state acts individually, Europe will find itself relegated to the role of mere spectator in the arena of major world events, with neither the capacity nor the power to influence their outcome.”⁵²

Regional Economic Organizations

Encouraged by the success of the European Union, almost every region in the world has formed an economic IGO and a regional economic development bank. These regional economic organizations (REOs) aim to improve cooperation and facilitate economic development by increasing transparency, funding projects, encouraging free trade, and reducing economic conflict. A handful of regional IGOs, such as the African Union and the Arab League, are more general in nature, but almost all have a substantial focus on economic development.

Because the success of an REO depends upon the peace and stability of a region, REOs are often pulled into efforts to enhance regional security. The United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), is the world’s largest free trade area.

Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay established MERCOSUR, the Southern Common Market (Mercado Común del Sur), in 1991 to “accelerate sustained economic development based on social justice, environmental protection, and poverty reduction.”⁵³ In subsequent years, other countries in the region, including Venezuela and Bolivia, joined MERCOSUR as full or associate members. In 2017, MERCOSUR suspended Venezuela for failing to comply with democratic principles.⁵⁴ In 2011, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru founded a new Latin American trading bloc, the Pacific Alliance. The Pacific Alliance has decreased tariffs in the participating countries and increased trade with the European Union and countries in Asia.⁵⁵

In the Asia-Pacific region, the largest REO is ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Since Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand founded ASEAN in 1967, it has expanded to include Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, and Cambodia. ASEAN has both security and economic priorities. It has become one of the largest free-trade areas in the world.

Other Types of Regional IGOs

Some regional IGOs, like the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, are organized around a common identity. Others, like the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), are organized around shared economic interests. The 13 member countries of OPEC own approximately 75 to 80 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. OPEC is open to any oil-producing state, and only the most powerful oil-producing states, such as Russia, China, and the United States, have opted not to join the organization. OPEC seeks to “coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic, and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital for those investing in the petroleum industry.”⁵⁶ The organization helps its members coordinate oil supply and pricing, which can (but does not always) provide relative stability and predictability in the petroleum market and avoid contentious trade wars.

How Do Regional IGOs Contribute to Global Governance?

From a realist perspective, which focuses on the primacy of states, IGOs are most important as tools states can use to their own advantage. No IGO can act independently of its member states, and the largest states typically have disproportionate influence over an organization’s actions.

While realists might point to persistent war and poverty as evidence of the ineffectiveness of IGOs, liberal internationalists and constructivists tend to highlight how IGOs constrain state action, increase areas of cooperation, draw states together in unprecedented ways, and help alleviate the scourges of war and poverty, even if they have not yet eliminated them. For instance, both the number of people dying in war and the number of states engaged in war have dropped significantly since World War II.⁵⁷ Also, since they are most directly impacted by the events in their own region, regional IGOs are better able than outside observers to monitor the actions of member states. For instance, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently held a meeting for regional IGOs to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on various cultural activities around the world and to elicit promises from the participants to monitor and support the cultural and creative sectors in their regions as countries recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic.⁵⁸

IGOs that begin with a narrow scope are prone to expansion, particularly when member states see the benefits of working together. Organizations like the United Nations use language—like urging “global citizenship,” promoting “the good of all nations,” and being a member of an “international community”—to encourage states to rise above sovereign individualism and see themselves as contributing to and benefiting from membership in a valuable, cohesive group. The use of language reinforcing desired norms can change state behavior, reducing uncertainty and enhancing cooperation.

1. Reused from Chapter 15 of Rom, Mark, Hidaka, Masaki, & Bzostek Walker, Rachel. (2022). Introduction to Political Science. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/books/introduction-political-science under CC-BY 4.0 license. Access for free at https://openstax.org ↑