Intergovernmental Organisations

12 Key excerpts on "Intergovernmental Organisations"

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  Managing Global Organizations

  • Maleehah Gull(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  IGOs additionally fill helpful needs for individual states, which frequently use them as instruments of international strategy to authentic their activities and to compel the conduct of different states. Despite the fact that the everyday tasks of most worldwide organizations are overseen by specific global administrations, extreme specialist rests with state individuals. IGOs regularly work intimately with different organizations, including NGOs (e.g., Greenpeace and Amnesty International), which serve a significant number of indistinguishable capacities from their IGO partners and are especially valuable for preparing open help, checking the viability of worldwide guide, and giving data and skill. Albeit a considerable lot of a large number of NGOs direct their exercises toward less created nations in Africa and Asia, some of which have dictator types of government, the greater part of these gatherings are situated in created states with pluralist political frameworks. Just a little part of NGOs is worldwide in extension, however, they have assumed an inexorably significant job in universal relations. It is common to recognize three fundamental sorts of “worldwide organization,” to be specific: between legislative organizations, global non-administrative organizations, and worldwide undertakings. Types of Global Organizations 61 3.1. INTER-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (IGOS) The Yearbook of International Organizations, which intends to distinguish and list all intergovernmental organizations, characterizes such bodies as being founded on a formal instrument of understanding between the legislatures of country states counting at least three country states as gatherings to the understanding having a perpetual secretariat performing progressing undertakings.

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  Management and Governance of Intergovernmental Organizations

  • Ryan Federo, Angel Saz-Carranza, Marc Esteve(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Contents 1 Introduction 1 2 IGOs as Organizations 2 3 Management of IGOs 4 4 Governance of IGOs 27 5 Conclusions and Implications 46 Bibliography 54 1 Introduction With the current globalized outlook, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) have become fundamental to solving complex policy problems across the world. These organizations, established by member states to promote international cooperation, are used to manage the delivery of global public goods (Federo and Saz-Carranza 2018). Research has long under- scored the importance of IGOs in governing and shaping the institutional environments in which firms, national governments, public entities, and nonprofit organizations operate (e.g., Bach and Newman 2014; Shaffer 2015). However, most studies have focused on the political aspects of cooperation, in particular, how and why various member states interact, and the outcomes associated with cooperation. Although IGOs are “organ- izations,” operating within the same bureaucratic system that underpins businesse, public agencies, and nonprofit entities, few studies have offered a holistic understanding of the way in which IGOs function and operate, particularly accounting for their differences in leadership and governance structures. This Element addresses such a gap in the literature and investi- gates what happens to IGOs after they are created. It does so by delving deeply into two important areas: the management and governance of IGOs. It provides scholars and managers with a detailed description of the differences in IGOs and their inner workings, while offering practical guidance on how to manage and govern them effectively. To explain how IGOs are managed and governed, this study builds on a four- year research program that collected three different types of data and produced several academic papers.

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  Theory and Reality of International Politics

  • Hans Mouritzen(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  8 The Role of International Organizations

  IGOs: The Control-Relax Mechanism Reapplied

  There are other types of actors in international politics than nation-states. Even though a state-centric conception of international politics is being presented in this book, it is important to single out the relationship between states and non-state actors, be it IGOs (international governmental organizations), INGOs (international non-governmental organizations), multinational corporations, or other types of entities. It is essential to identify a pre-theoretical mechanism characterizing the relationship between states and non-states. This mechanism is that of control-relax which was applied throughout chapters 6 and 7 regarding the role of internal factors in foreign policy. It is seen here as relevant in relation to all those types of non-state actors mentioned above; however, I shall apply it only to the relationship between states and IGOs and states and the EU1 .

  IGOs have been consciously designed by national governments in order to solve common problems that they cannot solve satisfactorily on their own - be it the regulation of war, trade, or transport or problems pertaining to development, the environment, human rights, etc. IGOs may be of a regional or universal scope (e.g. the Organization of African Unity' vs. the United Nations); that distinction is unimportant here. The sheer number of IGOs has grown exponentially during the 20th century, notably after World War II; that is why certain IR schools have ascribed them an increasing importance in international politics, perhaps even rivalling that of nation-states.

  As will be argued here, IGOs can be seen as the twining plants of international co-operation: firstly they are weak (cannot keep upright without support), secondly they are beautiful (supposed to serve beautiful purposes) and thirdly they are virtually impossible to get rid of. IGO weakness is most pronounced in high politics. But how can these weak creatures be so difficult to get rid of? Because the most powerful actors in international politics nation-states - wish IGOs to survive, even if they should appear redundant or inefficient in relation to their official purposes. The reason is that IGOs serve certain national vested interests (i.e. behind the facade), including beneficial unintended consequences flowing from their sheer existence. Just as beautiful twining plants can serve to hide ugly walls, for instance. On the one hand, nation-states do not allow IGOs to function too well and become too influential - especially not in high politics. On the other hand, they do not allow them to disappear.

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  Palgrave Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations in World Politics

  • Rafael Biermann, Joachim A. Koops, Rafael Biermann, Joachim A. Koops(Authors)
  • 2016(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  Thus, in order to fully under- stand inter-organizational relations, it is important to open the ‘black box’ of IOR, to examine the individual organizations cooperating and to assess the complex channels of interaction across the different levels, their institutional design as well as the variety of resources exchanged. In order to achieve more clarity when it comes to definitions of inter- organizational relations, it is essential to explain what we mean by ‘international 4 R. BIERMANN AND J.A. KOOPS organizations’ in the first place. While we, in line with inter-organizationalism so far, predominantly focus on IGOs in this Handbook, we see a strong need to explore more vigorously relations between International Non-governmental Organizations (INGOs, see Schneiker in this Handbook) as well as between IGOs and INGOs (Härtel as well as Wendler, this Handbook). We are aware that in some issue areas networking primarily takes place among IGOs (such as in international finance), whereas in other areas NGOs play a major role, with multiple NGOs often coordinated by a lead or focal IGO (such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in refugee crises). IGOs are defined as organizations ‘composed primarily of sovereign states, or of other international organizations. IGOs are established by treaty or other agreement that acts as a charter creating the group’ (Union of International Associations 2015). 4 IR scholars of international organizations have added the further qualification that intergovernmental organizations have ‘actor-like qualities’ and resources (Hurd 2011, pp. 17 and 23; Reinalda 2009, p. 9; Cox and Jacobsen 1973, p. 7; Simmons and Martin 2002, p. 193) and at least a minimum degree of autonomous decision-making power embodied in its cen- tral institutions that are distinct from (though often dependent on) its member states (Cosgrove and Twitchett 1970, pp. 12–14; Jupille and Caporaso 1998, p. 27; Barnett and Finnemore 2004).

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  Governing the World?

  Addressing "Problems Without Passports"

  • Thomas G Weiss(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  HAPTER FOUR INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS THAT WORK      

  Despite the need for them that is so apparent in these pages, current intergovernmental organizations are flimsy; they are without human and financial resources commensurate with the size of the transborder problems that they are supposed to address. Even such powerful ones as the UN Security Council and the World Bank often lack funds or authority or both. Other organizations are under construction or are not up to current building codes (so to speak); still others have architectural plans on drawing boards with only a prototype, not the real thing, to address gargantuan demands. As indicated earlier, it is not so much the numbers of IGOs that is the concern but rather feeble mandates, inadequate resources, and no autonomy. We require better, not more, IGOs.

  Global governance is uneven, giving the impression of coverage but often with too little practical effect. Appearances can be not only deceiving but also deadly; a well-populated institutional terrain can mask a lack of coherence, substance, and accomplishment. We may feel virtuous and persuade ourselves that we are making progress when actually we are treading water, wasting time and energy rather than moving swiftly toward safety; we may even be drowning what we are trying to rescue.

  The past quarter century has witnessed a sea-change in knowledge, norms, and policies to address some of the planet’s ills. We are not starting from scratch. Yet steps in the right direction must find a home within effective institutional structures if responses are to avoid being ad hoc, episodic, idiosyncratic, and ultimately inadequate. Collective efforts backed with financial resources and qualified people have clout, whereas those without do not.

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  The Ebb and Flow of Global Governance

  Intergovernmentalism versus Nongovernmentalism in World Politics

  • Alexandru Grigorescu(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  It should be understood as both preceding and being preceded by another basic ques- tion in global governance scholarship, the more common and by now fairly ubiquitous one of when governments are likely to cooperate with each other 25 The Structure of the Book and form IOs (e.g., Krasner 1983; Keohane 1984; Mearsheimer 1994; Shanks et al. 1996; Rathbun 2012). Indeed, even before seeking cooperation and the establishment of intergovernmental structures, states (at least the most power- ful ones) first need to determine that they want to step in and deal with certain global problems rather than encourage or allow nongovernmental actors to become or remain the main global governors. For example, in the education realm, governments did not believe they should become involved in global governance up until the late 1920s. Some did not consider that they should deal with international education issues even as late as 1945. Additionally, after governments decide that they do want to form organiza- tions to deal with global problems, they may find that there is not sufficient agreement among them with regard to how such IOs should function (as in the case of the IBE discussed earlier in this chapter). When governments are not successful in establishing IOs, nongovernmental actors are more likely to take on important roles in global governance. In other words, the establish- ment of nongovernmental forms of global governance should be viewed as an alternative third possible outcome, in addition to the two usually discussed in the literature: (1) An intergovernmental IO is established or (2) no IO, whether intergovernmental or nongovernmental, is established. More broadly, the emergence of intergovernmental IOs should not be viewed, as much of the literature has so far suggested, as simply the result of states’ ability to cooperate with each other on a specific issue.

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  International Documents for the 80's

  Their Role and Use. Proceedings of the 2nd World Symposium on International Documentation Brussels - 1980

  • Theodore D. Dimitrov, L. Marulli-Koenig(Authors)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  The differences in motivation between commercial and intergovernmental organisa-tion publishers should not obscure an important similarity. It is, of course, a mistake to regard commercial publishing these days as a matter of large edi-tions and sales. Many commercial publishers operate successfully in highly specialized material, in small editions. In many fields of knowledge publishing activities overlap freely (and some Intergovernmental Organisations make ex-tensive use of this in publishing through commercial channels); the circle of entrepreneurial publishers specialising in such apparently unpromising ventures as records and backlists, in normal and microform editions, of Intergovernmental Organisations will be well known to delegates here. Though some of these ven-tures have built their success on the deficiencies of the organisations them-selves, they must prompt the thought that the commercial intermediaries could be more fully engaged. In terms of publishing, Intergovernmental Organisations fall naturally into two main classes. Mr. Dimitrov's work contains a Directory of IGO's, of which, even five years ago, he lists over 300. There are, of course, many more non-governmental organisations. The main bulk of these IGO's are incidental, even if compulsive publishers. An organisation acquires a title, an acronym, offices and a secretariat. A governing or deliberative body meets, has proceedings, which are recorded (and delegates want a record of every interjection) and some-times makes decisions. This body needs to be briefed and informed, it issues guidance and advice; it sets up committees, working parties, task forces, which report and recommend, and symposia, which want to record and issue their proceed-ings. In no time at all this acronym becomes a source of international documenta-tion, and usually the publisher of it.

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  International Law and the European Union

  • Jed Odermatt(Author)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  1 For work on the EU in particular organizations, see R. A. Wessel & J. Odermatt (eds), Research Handbook on the European Union and International Organizations (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2019); C. Kaddous (ed), The European Union in International Organisations and Global Governance: Recent Developments (Oxford: Hart, 2015); K.-E. Jørgensen & Katie Laatikainen (eds), Routledge Handbook on the European Union and International Institutions: Performance, Policy, Power (London:Routledge, 2013). 131 In order to examine the EU’s relationship with IOs, it is useful to discuss briefly what is meant by ‘international organization’. An international organ- ization is generally described in international law as a body established by a treaty, which has states among its members. One commonly used defin- ition regards international organizations as ‘forms of co-operation (i) founded on an international agreement; (ii) having at least one organ with a will of its own; and (iii) established under international law’. 2 This legal definition places importance on the separate legal personality of the organ- ization. For the purposes of this chapter, a broader notion of international organization is used. This is because a focus on only intergovernmental organizations with legal personality would leave out a much larger array of bodies that, although not IOs from the perspective of international law, develop norms that have an effect on the EU legal order. In this sense, international organizations include more than just the intergovernmental bodies such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organization or the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but also include a vast array of inter- national bodies whose output has an effect on the EU.

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  Palgrave Advances in Global Governance

  • J. Whitman(Author)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Palgrave Macmillan

    (Publisher)

  At the global level, governance has been 70 palgrave advances in global governance viewed primarily as intergovernmental relationships, but it must now be understood as also involving non-governmental organiza- tions (NGOs), citizens' movements, multinational corporations, and the global capital market.'14 • Margaret P. Karns and Karen A. Mingst, 2004: '[I1he collection of governance-related activities, rules, and mechanisms, formal and informal, existing at a variety of levels in the world today ... the cooperative problem-solving arrangements and activities that states and other actors have put into place to deal with various issues and problems.'1s • World Economic Forum 2006: Governance covers 'the contributions of all the types of actors on the global stage: governments, intergov- ernmental organizations, the business community and civil society. Governments are the key actors with the lion's share of responsibil- ity for ensuring the achievement of the goals, and the intergovern- mental organizations they create are essential tools in that struggle. But governments are unlikely to meet the challenge without the active and large-scale participation of both the private sector and civil society'.16 Global governance does not connote good or bad practice but describes cooperative problem-solving arrangements of all types. They may be formal, taking the shape of laws or institutions to manage collective affairs by such actors as state authorities, IGOs, NGOs, private sector entities, other civil society actors, and individuals. But arrangements may also involve such informal mechanisms as practices or guidelines or even temporary units (for example, coalitions). Global governance includes purpose-built regimes as well as market-driven evolutions and adaptations; and as such, it therefore includes governments. There is no necessarily anti-state or anti-government bias that emanates from this perspective - too much enthusiasm verges on the worst caricatures of the Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher years, 'anything the state can do the private sector can do better'. We therefore distance ourselves from analysts like B. Guy Peters, who wrote the following about gov- ernance without

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  Democratic Intergovernmental Organizations?

  Normative Pressures and Decision-Making Rules

  • Alexandru Grigorescu(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  1 1 Introduction: “Democratic” Intergovernmental Organizations The Question Driving This Book There is general agreement that, over the past two centuries, democratic norms 1 have become increasingly powerful. This trend has produced pressures on states to embrace democratic rules and practices domesti- cally. However, national governments are not the only entities affected by democratic norms. Decision-making in organizations and among groups of individuals at all levels involves procedures that we often describe as “democratic.” Fair voting procedures, fair representation, and access to information have come to be expected from decisions in forums as diverse as company boards of directors and student organizations. The pressures to adopt such practices are often present even in organizations from countries that are not themselves democratic. I argue that such pervasive democratic norms have influenced even decision-making at the highest level of human interaction, that of inter- governmental organizations (IGOs), where billions of people are being represented by a small number of decision-makers. The main ques- tion driving this study is, how have democratic norms shaped IGO decision-making rules? This book shows that, for democratic norms to influence IGO rules, it is not sufficient for them to be “strong” – that is, to be broadly accepted. In addition, the rules that are in place need to be perceived as departing substantially from the norm prescriptions. When both such conditions 1 Throughout this book I refer to “norms” based on the broad understanding of the term in international relations as “shared expectations about appropriate behavior held by a community of actors” (Finnemore 1996, 22). Democratic Intergovernmental Organizations? 2 are in place, actors are under “normative pressure” to change the rules. Furthermore, as Figure 1.1 illustrates, even when such pressures are strong, there is variance in outcomes.

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  An Introduction to International Organizations Law

  • Jan Klabbers(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Some inte- gration theorists have held that the chances of international integration, or even mere cooperation, occurring are greater when the purpose of cooperation is limited to some technical task: a clearly circumscribed function. The under- lying idea is that technical functions (such as, say, the regulation of telecom- munications) do not involve great political sentiments; cooperation can thus take place unencumbered by unproductive debates and disagreements. As there can hardly be disagreement about the necessity and benefits of regula- tion, integration can proceed by focusing on substance, and through the work of engineers and other experts rather than politicians. On such views, it is no coincidence that organizations first arose in order to manage practical prob- lems such as transport and communication, and it is no coincidence that the levels of cooperation are more intense in these organizations than in organiza- tions devoted to more ‘political’ tasks. Unfortunately, while the distinction makes intuitive sense, it is not a distinction which can easily be captured in comprehensive definitions and descriptions. If under ‘politics’ we refer predominantly to issues of peace and security, then there is only one universal political organization at present: the 42 To be sure, there is also the geographically more limited Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (which only has Arab member states). 43 The organization is the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, which used to be headed by former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. 25 The Rise of International Organizations UN. Moreover, there is but a fine line between what some would appreciate as political and what others would regard as functional, and much may depend on one’s position. As the International Court of Justice (ICJ) acknowledged in the early 1970s, a state such as Iceland is disproportionately dependent on fisheries.

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  International Organisations and Global Problems

  Theories and Explanations

  • Susan Park(Author)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • Cambridge University Press

    (Publisher)

  Instead, these complex issues are being addressed by non-state actors, such as private banks; NGOs, such as Greenpeace; and private foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Moreover, these actors are coordinating their activities in ways unaccounted for by the theoretical literature on IOs. For example, many traditional IOs are also engaged in hybrid activities such as GAVI and UNAIDS, and private in fl uence is evident even in traditional IOs like the WHO. While we can attempt to explain this through rationalist or even liberal internationalist theories, much of the global governance literature seeks to map what these various actors are cooperating and coordinating for, and whether it contributes to addressing the speci fi c issue. Why not use the concept of regimes or institutions? The concept of regimes incorporates the role of states and IOs, and is a key concept in the literature for examining the governance of speci fi c issue areas in international relations. Yet global governance goes beyond regimes to analyse the space between regimes and to examine the different ideas, norms and rules that come to dominate when regimes overlap or clash. For example, how does the trade regime con fl ict with the convention on the trade of endangered species? Moreover, global govern-ance as a concept draws attention to two key factors that are implicit in the regime concept. The fi rst factor is that global governance, unlike regimes, is not state-centric. The de fi nition of regimes does not refer to states, yet the concept was formulated 234 Conclusion by state-centric theorists, and often the actors whose expectations converge are states (Krasner 1983 ). NGOs are allowed into these mechanisms, usually as commentators or side-line actors to crucial inter-state negotiations of multilat-eral treaties, but they are not central; see, for example, Betsill and Corell ( 2008 ) on how NGOs try to insert themselves into inter-state negotiations.

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