INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS - 15 Mints Seminar Notes

International Organizations are unions of states (or their agencies); of nongovernmental organizations, ethnic communities, and private individuals from various states. These unions aim at achieving common objectives in various spheres (political, economic, social, cultural, and scientific) and represent the primary form of international cooperation.

International organizations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century, when economic and sociopolitical relations crossed the borders of nations giving rise to an objective demand for cooperation and coordination of interstate efforts to solve new transnational tasks. The first mass international nongovernmental organizations were the Red Cross (1863), founded by Swiss Henry Dunant, and the First International (1864), an international fellowship of workers founded in London by K. Marx and F. Engels. The first international intergovernmental organization was the Universal Postal Union, founded in 1874 in order to provide organization and functioning of the international postal service (since 1878, the World Postal Union). World wars and especially the second one gave a new impulse to the building of international organizations in order to prevent new wars and to create an effective system of international security. Thus, in 1919 the League of Nations was founded (officially disbanded in 1946); it was an international organization that proclaimed development of cooperation among nations and the promotion of peace and security as its central goals. In 1945 the United Nations Charter was adopted. The United Nations Organization was created to strengthen security and peace and to develop cooperation among nations. In the second half of twentieth century globalization and the growing interdependence of nations have led to the emergence of an increasing number of international organizations, extension of their functions and agenda and their growing influence and visibility in the international arena.

At present there are tens of thousands of international organizations in the world diverse in their activities, organizational forms, goals and objectives, number of participants, agenda and functions. Depending on organizational form, we can distinguish two types of international organizations: intergovernmental and nongovernmental.

Intergovernmental international organizations are founded and act in accordance with treaties and agreements among states at the level of governments or governmental agencies. They have adequate authorities and administrative structures and are considered subjects of international law, that is, they possess international rights and duties, sign international treaties with states and among themselves. Such organizations include the United Nations Organization (the United Nations, 1945), the International Monetary Fund (the IMF, 1945), the World Trade Organization (WTO, 1995), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, 1949), the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC, 1960), and others.

Nongovernmental international organizations unite public unions and scientific societies, private companies and enterprises, and private individuals from different countries. Unlike governmental organizations, the nongovernmental ones are not subjects of international law. Among the largest and the most powerful of them are the Interparliamentary Union (1889), the International Olympic Committee (1950), the World Federation of Trade Unions (1945), the World Peace Council (1950), the International Union of Students (1946), the Club of Rome (1968), Greenpeace (1971), and others.

Depending on their participants and the scale of their activity, international organizations can be universal and regional.

Universal organizations conduct their activity on all territories, states, and continents and embrace the world community as a whole. As a rule, they are open to all states, and to organizations or private individuals regardless of the socioeconomic and political systems of these countries.

Regional international organizations unite states (or intrastate agencies), communities, or private individuals of a specific geographic region forming a territory-based structure.

The largest universal organizations, taking an appreciable and essential part in the process of globalization are:

(1) The United Nations Organization (UN).

(2) The U.N. specialized agencies: World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Health Organization (WHO), World Intellectual Property Organization, World Postal Union, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), International Development Association (IDA), International Maritime Organization (IMO), International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), International Labor Organization (ILO), International Finance Corporation, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Monetary Fund (IMF), International Telecommunications Union (ITU), International Court of Justice (ICJ), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and United Nations Development Program.

(3) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

(4) Autonomous organizations under the aegis of the U.N.: World Trade Organization (WTO), United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Other key international organizations include: the World Confederation of Labor (WCL), the World Federation of Scientific Workers (WFSW), the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), the World Bank, the World Council of Churches (WCC), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Interpol, The London Club, the International Association of Political Science, the International Organization of Journalists (IOJ), the International Federation of Philosophical Societies (IFPS), the International Military Tribunal, The International Green Cross, the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Pugwash Movement, the The Paris Club, and The Great Seven (since 1997, the Great Eight).

The most well known international regional organizations are: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Association of South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Baltic Assembly, The GUUAM (Georgia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova), The European Union (EU), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Eurasian Economic Community, the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA), the Latin American Economic System (LAES), the League of Arab States, the International Association of Philosophy Professors (AIPhP), the MERCOSUR (the Southern Common Market), the Organization of American States (OAS), the Organization for African Unity (OAU), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organization of Central-American States, the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, the Colombo Plan, the Nordic Council, the Council of Europe (COE), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Council of Persian Gulf Arab States Cooperation, the Council for Mutual Economic Aid (CMEA), the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)