Unit 2: International Politics and International Organizations

Introduction

Although states maintain their position as the primary actors in international politics, starting from 19th century, the number, types and significance of international organizations as actors in international politics have gradually increased. The Yearbook of International Organizations database includes 69,000 international organizations, 37,000 of which are active and 32,000 are dormant. Every year 1,200 new organizations are added to Yearbook’s database (The Yearbook of International Organizations, n.d.). There are a growing number of intergovernmental and international nongovernmental organizations carrying out various functions and roles.

Definitions, roles, Functions and Classification of International Organizations

International organiztaion is called as a formal continuous structure established by agreement between members (governmental and/or nongovernmental) from two or more sovereign states with the aim of pursuing the common interest of the membership. an entity can be identified as an international organization if it carries three main characteristics classified under three headings: membership, aim and structure. In terms of membership, an international organization should draw its membership from two or more sovereign states, although membership should not be limited to states or official representatives of states such as government ministers. With regard to aim, an international organization should be established to pursue common interests of the members rather than pursuing the interests of only one member, regardless of the desires of others. Regarding structure, an international organization should have its own formal structure of a continuous nature, which is established by an agreement such as a treaty or constituent document, is separate from the continued control of one member. There has been many other definitions to international organizations All of which cover three important characteristics:

• The organization ‘must consist of at least two qualified members of the international system’
• The organization must hold more or less regular plenary sessions at intervals not greater than once a decade.
• The organization should have a permanent secretariat with a permanent headquarter arrangement and which performs ongoing tasks.

Roles of International Organizations in International Politics

International organization generally plays three major roles in international politics: instrument, arena and actor.

Instrument: International organizations are generally being used as an instrument by its members for particular ends. This is particularly the case with intergovernmental organizations where sovereign states are members, because they have the power to constrain international organizations from acting independently

Arena: International organizations provide arenas or forums where members to come together to discuss, argue, co-operate or disagree.

Actor: The third role attributed to international organizations in international politics is that of independent actor. Here, actorness refers the capacity of an organization to act independently from its constituent member states and ability to affect the course of world events. The actorness of an organization necessitates having an existence separate from the states that make it up.

These three roles are not mutually exclusive. An international organization in different times and settings can play all three roles. For instance, the UN has played, and continues to play, each role in different times.

Functions of International Organizations

There are nine major functions that all international organizations carry out: interest articulation and aggregation, normative, recruitment, socialization, rule making, rule application, rule adjudication, information, operations.

Interest articulation and aggregation:

International organizations as one of the institutionalized forms of contact between the active participants in the international system provide those having common interests a platform where they come together for realizing their common interests.

Normative: International organizations have made a considerable contribution to the normative activities of the international political system through creating norms, values and norms of behavior and establishing them worldwide.

Recruitment: International organizations can have an important function in the recruitment of participants in the international political system. Since intergovernmental organizations consist almost exclusively of representatives of sovereign states, it gives a further incentive for non-self-governing territories to achieve their independence.

Socialization: International organizations can act as agencies of socialization in international system. For instance, the EU through its institutions such as the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions, the Parliament and the Court of Justice, can foster a ‘Community spirit’ among the various interest groups dealing with the Union and among the citizens of the member countries.

Rule Making: Since there is no central formal rulemaking institution such as a government or a parliament in the international system, rules are based on the acceptance of past practice or on ad hoc arrangements or they may be founded in bilateral legal agreements between states or they may emanate from international organizations.

Rule Application: International organizations monitor the application of rules and in case of a rule violation, they take necessary measures to enforce compliance.

Rule adjudication: At the international level, in case of legal disputes between states concerning the interpretation of a treaty, any question of international law, the existence of any fact which, if established, would constitute a breach of an international obligation, the nature or extent of the reparation to be made for the breach of an international obligation, the function of rule adjudication is carried out by courts of justice, arbitration panels and tribunals within the body of international organizations.

Information: International organizations carry out a significant function in the field of collecting, processing, analyzing and disseminating information.

Operation: International organizations undertake a number of operational functions, including resource allocation, provision of technical aid, force deployment, etc.

Classification of International Organizations

International Organizations can be classified under three main categories defined by sovereignty, membership and aims.

Sovereignty: According to sovereignty criteria, international organizations are classified according to whether member states delegate all or some of their sovereign rights to an international organization or not.

Membership: The first distinction between the types of international organization based on membership is those which are interstate or intergovernmental and those whose membership is non-governmental. A further category is international organizations with mixed membership. If an international organization is established with an intergovernmental agreement and whose members are sovereign states, it is considered as an interstate or intergovernmental organization (UN, NATO, WTO, etc.).

Aims and Activities: In terms of aims and activities, international organizations are classified according to what they are supposed to do and what they actually do. If an organization has general aims and carries out a wide range of activities, they are considered as international organization with general aims and activities, such as the UN.

Historical Roots of International Organizations

Although the foundation of international organizations was built in ancient times, the organizations themselves did not emerge until the 19th century, when four preconditions were met:

• The existence of a number of states functioning as independent political units;
• the existence of a substantial measure of contact between these states;
• an awareness of problems that arise from states’ co-existence;
• state’s recognition of ‘the need for creation of institutional devices and systematic methods for regulating their relations with each other’

Theoretical Approaches to International organizations

Theoretical approaches to international organizations are classified under two main categories: Traditional Approaches to International Organizations and Revisionist Approaches to International Organizations. Traditional approaches include Realism and Liberalism. They have a state-centric approach to the analysis of international organizations. According Realist thinkers, international politics have an anarchic structure in which there is no common authority over and above the sovereign state, or a lack of government at the international level. Realists claim that in anarchic international system, states cannot trust each other and they always fear of cheating and thus this makes interstate cooperation difficult to achieve. For Realists, main motivation of states in anarchic international system is survival, i.e. preserving the existence of the state, because of this, states cannot rely on other states or international organizations for their defence and must rely on its own resources for survival, which is called as self-help.

Liberalism: Liberals claim that international organizations play a significant role in international politics. Although liberals do not deny the concerns about relative gains (because they also accept assumptions about state egoism), they claim that states may be more concerned about making absolute gains (improvement in a state’s position in absolute terms).

Functionalism: Functionalism is a part of liberal tradition of International Relations, but it goes beyond the state-centric view of international politics and examines international organizations as a significant actor beside states. It can be classified as a theory of international integration and a central component of the study of international and nongovernmental organizations

Neofunctionalism: Neofunctionalism emerged in order to explain newly emerging European integration process in the 1950s. The most important figures of Neofunctionalism are Ernst Haas and Leon Lindberg. Neofunctionalist approach drew on earlier functionalism, but in a spirit of friendly critique and with some significant divergence.

Transactionalism: The most prominent representative of transactionalist approach to international integration was Karl Deutsch. Deutsch defined international integration as being about the achievement of security within a region or among a group of states.