Intergovernmental Organisations

Question 1

What are intergovernmental organisations (IGOs)?

Answer 1

IGOs are a special category of international organisations

Question 2

Who are IGOs formed by?

Answer 2

IGOs are always founded by governments which recognise

• that it is in their national interests to obtain multilateral agreements
• pursue actions to deal with threats or challenges that cannot be dealt with effectively at the unilateral level

Question 3

Name an example of an IGO which was established with the aim of promoting regional security

Answer 3

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)

Question 4

Why is NATO the most powerful and integrated of regional military security organisations?

Answer 4

Its leading member state (US) is the sole remaining superpower

Question 5

What was the League of Nations?

Answer 5

The League of Nations was

• an intergovernmental organisation
• founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War
• it was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace

Question 6

What were the three main organs of The League of Nations?

Answer 6

• A council of 15 member states
• An assembly in which all member states would be represented
• A permanent Secretariat

Question 7

Why was it so difficult for the League to act swiftly and effectively in times of international crisis?

Answer 7

All decisions had to be by unanimous vote

Question 8

Why did the League of Nations fail to uphold international peace and security?

Answer 8

• It did not reflect the realities of the balance of power in the inter-war period
• The US refused to join the League, despite President Woodrow Wilson being the major champion of the League
• This deprived the League of Nations of US’ military + economic power
• Germany, Japan and Italy (under their dictatorships) rejected the authority of the league

Question 9

Despite its failure to maintain peace and security, what were some benefits of the League of Nation?

Answer 9

• Evidence of a desire to establish an international institution capable of maintaining peace
• In this way paved the way for the UN
• The UN Charter borrowed some elements of League structure in designing the new world IGO, but with much greater realism

Question 10

What is the fundamental weakness of the UN?

Answer 10

Like the League, the UN is founded on principles of

• sovereignty of states
• voluntary system of collective security, meaning that the UN has no means of enforcing its decisions
• it is up to the member states themselves to decide what their obligations to the UN should be
• these weaknesses are an inescapable consequence of the quasi-anarchic nature of international relations

Question 11

Why is there no world sovereign body?

Answer 11

States believe that the creation of a world government with the power + authority to make and enforce world laws would sometimes work against their national interests

Question 12

What is the UN Charter?

Answer 12

• The world organisation’s basic constitution

- A major source of international law

Question 13

How does the UN Charter define the aims of the UN?

Answer 13

• maintaining international peace + security by means of peaceful settlement of disputes + collective security
• the promotion of international cooperation in the economic + social field
• the promotion of respect for universal human rights

Question 14

Why has the vagueness of the UN Charter’s language and underlying principles turned out to be one of the UN’s hidden strengths?

Answer 14

• It has provided the UN with far more flexibility + potential durability than the Covenant could ever provide for the League
• eg. the decision to give each permanent member of the Security Council the power of veto gravely restricted its scope to influence events during Cold War
• However, this provision in UN Charter made it less likely that the major powers would withdraw from the organisation, possibly leading to its ultimate fragmentation + demise

Question 15

Where has UN peacekeeping helped terminate conflicts?

Answer 15

In Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, Congo

Question 16

For the first 45 years of the UN’s existence, why was the Security Council effectively paralysed?

Answer 16

• The UN Security Council, consisting of 15 members (5 permanent members) was virtually paralysed by the cold war ideological divisions between the US, UK + France on the one hand, and the Soviet Union, on the other
• All permanent members have power of veto and this made it all to easy for the Soviet Union to block any Security Council resolution to which they were opposed

Question 17

When was the only time the UN Security Council was able to authorise military action during the Cold War?

Answer 17

The only time the UNSC was able to authorise military action was to dispatch troops to South Korea to resist the North Korea invasion, but this was due simply to the absence of the Soviet delegate, and was of doubtful legality

Question 18

Why would those who favour a ‘functionalist’ approach to international relations commend the UN system for the world of its specialised agencies?

Answer 18

(eg. WHO, UNESCO, International Court of Justice)

those who favour a ‘functionalist’ approach to international relations would argue that through this cooperation on non-political matters (eg. economic development in LEDCs), states begin to act + develop a genuinely international society capable of pursuing the common interests of humankind

Question 19

Why was the UN hopelessly overstretched in the 1990s?

Answer 19

As a result of increasing efforts at humanitarian + peace-keeping responsibilities in a growing number of internal rather than inter-state conflicts

eg. in El Salvado, Haiti, Rwanda

Question 20

Why did the UN suffer severe setbacks in the conflicts of the 1990s?

Answer 20

• UN troops were taken hostage in Bosnia
• In Rwanda, Burundi + Darfur, where severe inter-communal wars were going on, the UN was hampered by lack of troops, shortage of funds + disagreements among the UN Security Council members which have severely limited the UN’s capability to intervene effectively

Question 21

What plans for reform of the UN did Tony Blair purport in a speech at Georgetown University in 2006?

Answer 21

• An enlargement of the UN Security Council
• Sympathise with demands of countries such as India, Brazil, Japan + Germany for seats on the Security Council
• In favour of abolishing the veto powers of the permanent members of UNSC

Question 22

What did Tony Blair propose for UN reform in a speech in Washington in May 2006?

Answer 22

• He proposed the enhancement of the UN’s capacity to take ‘pre-emptive’ action
• Neo-conservative idea
• The crisis in Darfur proved the UN should be an empowered international actor, with the capacity to intervene militarily in undemocratic countries to spread democratic values around the world

Question 23

Why has the UN system been able to endure so long?

Answer 23

It has learnt to manage the fundamental differences between US, China, Russia etc.. and to act as a genuinely neutral world organisation

Efforts to impose a single set of values or political system on the world have had tragic consequences. Better to have a UN system which acts as an effective forum + system for global diplomatic communication