W1: Types, Functions and Policy Making of IO Flashcards
Terms and useful info
Term
State
political community with permanent population, defined territory, government with monopoly of force and capacity to enter into relations with other states
Term
Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs)
IO with membership made up of three or more states –> members are states represented by their governments, e.g. UN, World Bank, NATO
Term
Transnational Organisation
IO made up of private actors (e.g. trnasnational corporations, religous movements, NGOs)
members are individuals, groups or associations (Amnesty International)
Term
International Institution
Set of implicit or explicit pinciples, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which actors’ expectations converge in a given area of IR
Term
IR
Structural formal contacts between governments through bilateral and multilateral diplomatic relations
Term
Trans-governmental Relations
Structural informal contacts between (representatvies of) ministries, parliaments and other governmental bodies
Term
Transnational relations
structural contacts between private actors across state borders
Term
Regimes
international process and collection of rules
environmental regimes can tranform into International Institution
Term
Global governance
the sum of laws, norms, policies and institutions that define, c onstitute and mediate relations among citizens, society, markets, and the state in the international arena
The wielders and objects of international public power (Weiss & Thakw)
1648
Treaty of Westphalia
ended 30-year war, made every country soveriegn, no interference in internal affairs nor in external relations
League of Nations established; weaknesses
aftermath of WW1, to establish peace
- unable to check aggressive behavior of Japan, US not joining
- failure in 1939
- wanted to create balance; system remained same, states not follow rules
Why join an IO?
12 answers
- bride tensions between individual and collective interests
- pursue comon interests
- coordinate their actions
- pool resources
- facilitate regular communications
- share and generate information
- monitor one another
- to gain legitimacy for their actions -> small sovereign states show independence
- symbolic value
- adjudicate disputes
- ‘tie-in’ and illustrate domestic commitments
- ‘lock-in’ the international spoils of victory
Can NGOs have legitimacy (= can create binding rules and laws)?
No, cannot create laws, but can make sure that binding rules and laws are implemented.
power to influence states, shame them
Function UN evolved from:
(1945) to maintain international peace, and promote human rights and international economic and social cooperation
remit has expanded enormously (health, environment, development)
Categorizing IOs
membership, size, issue area, region, function, etc
- most IOs fit into more than one category
- important to know, how to define and categorize them influences analysis
Mansfiel & Pevehouse, 2014
opsomming
Structures of IGOs
- founding treaty
- assembly
- council
- secretariat
IOs can …
Barnett and Finnemore
- calssify the world
- fix meanings in the social world
- articulate and diffuse new norms
IOs are ‘tools’ of …
Mearsheimer
powerful states with the minimal autonomous power
evolution of IO theory: 1930s - 1970s
Post-WW2
enormous reconstruction effort, creation of handful of major IOs designed to help protect the world from future WWs
“International Organizatoin” (1947) leading journal in field of IO
Evolution of IO theory: 1930s - 1970s
behavioralism (1960s)
American political science; focus on political behavior of actors & institutions
Evolution of IO theory: 1930s - 1970s
integration theory
(late 60s, early 70s)
economic integation in Europe
Evolution of IO theory: 1970s - 1990s
Events
- vietnam war
- collapse Bretton Woods system
- 1973 oil crisis
- how to safeguard nuclear materials (70s)
underline importance of IO
Evolution of IO theory: 1970s - 1990s
Realists & Neorealists
state as main unit of analysis in world characterized by anarchy, assume that states seek power to ensure survival; assumed IOs function at margins on international politics, and therefore also unimportant
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
theory of regimes
Robert Keohane
- decline of USA as golbal hegemon did not indicate decline of regimes overall
- regimes reduce uncertainty and enable cooperation
- main actors are states, IOs not
- IOs means for cooperation and not constraint
Neoliberalist institutionalist: IOs enable states to cooperate
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
New institutionalism
formal institutions defined more broadly as political & economic structures
extended well beyond field of IO
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
rational choice institutionalism
extend and critique neoclassical economic theories, based on assumption that individuals are self-interested, rational acotrs who pursue strategies to maximize their well-being
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
new institutional economics
treating the firm as black box by developing organisational theories to explain why firms behave in particular ways & how they are organised
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
Agency theory
- problems within firms arise when an actor (Agent) is delegated the power to act in the interests of another actor (principal) due to differences in expectations and interests
- for IOs, this can be applied when one studies the delegation of authority from the MS to an IO
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
public choice theory
focuses on how individuals make decisions and interact with one another in different institutional settings
why countries join IOs…
Evolution of IO theory: Flavor of Institutionalism
constructivism
ways that ideas, norms, culture, …. influence politics; how international norms are created and diffused
Evolution of IO theory: 1990s - present: contemporary issues and debates
Rationalist vs. Rationalist
sometimes scholars who share methodological prediction may disagree on role of IOs in global goveranance;
Evolution of IO theory: 1990s - present: contemporary issues and debates
Neorealists & Neoliberal institutionalists
share nationalist approach to study of IOs, but reach different conslusions about whether and how IO influence state & institutional issues
Evolution of IO theory: 1990s - present: contemporary issues and debates
Economics vs. Sociology
how to analyse IO behavior
Evolution of IO theory: 1990s - present: contemporary issues and debates
IOs as Stages or Actors?
often both.
How politics shape state behavior toward organisation -> assume IOs are stages or instruments of the powerful inside out -> interested in IO as actor and what it does -> how power may shape the organisations’ actions, outcome, and effectiveness
