role of international organizations essay

, John M. Regan Jr. Director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies and Professor of History at University of Notre Dame, describes a recent UN conference on religion and tolerance.

Under the leadership of Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, the office of the UN Secretary-General has become more active in mediation efforts around the world. It has done so with the help of assistants to the Secretary-General as well as other special representatives. Despite being formally at the service of the General Assembly and Security Council, the Secretary-General has significant discretionary power. The Secretary-General has used his authority to engage in diplomacy , acting as mediator and authorizing provisional missions ahead of Security Council authorization. Unfortunately, although the Security Council remains the primary actor for the maintenance of international peace and security, its record during the 1990s indicates that the UN often reacts to crises, rather than acting to prevent crises. With its independent stature, the Secretary-General's office has the potential to shape the nature of debates regarding preventive action and to forward the cause of peace by being aggressive in drawing the attention of the Security Council to specific cases requiring preventive action.[7] This goal has been aided by new initiatives, including the so-called Friends of the Secretary-General, which refers to informal, ad hoc multilateral diplomatic channels used to support initiatives by the Secretary-General.

Regardless of what role the Secretary-General's office is able to play, second and third generation missions require more active management on the part of the Security Council. The unique authority and power of the Security Council also leaves it with disproportionate responsibility for responding to crises. The challenge posed by second and third generation missions is that they require long-term commitments. Throughout the 1990s, there generally was great enthusiasm for the UN to take upon itself these new roles. However, what has been less reliable is commitment on behalf of Member States to increase contributions and support institutional change to allow the United Nations to conduct the peacekeeping and peacebuilding missions that have been asked of it. What is more, Member States must also recognize that the possibility of encountering violence is real, and be determined to confront violent situations.[8] In the post-Cold War period, the UN has had mixed success in such missions. The determining factor has not been the UN itself but rather the commitment of Security Council members and the nature of the conflict itself.[9] In situations where all sides of the conflict were interested in resolution and resources were available to see the mission through, the UN has been remarkably successful.

After the UN's experiences in the early 1990s, it became apparent that the traditional mode of UN peacekeeping was not effective in new contexts. The nature of these more recent missions was that UN troops were being inserted into conflicts where fighting was still underway. To prevent conflicts from spreading further, some have advocated the creation of a rapid reaction force,[10] but these complex multifunctional forces suffer from several shortcomings. They are often poorly planned, a factor that is more crucial as missions become more complex. Organizational structure is often weak because conflicting interests exist within the force. In addition, civil and military roles are not clearly linked. The UN also remains significantly dependent upon the resources and expertise of Member States. All of these problems are compounded by the fact that missions are fundamentally dependent upon the goodwill of locals as well as Member States.

Peacebuilding Missions

Peacebuilding missions in the 1990s are broad and varied in content. Generally speaking, some or all of the following may be incorporated into a particular peacebuilding mission: disarming parties and restoring order , destroying weapons, repatriating refugees, training police, monitoring elections , enhancing efforts to protect human rights , improving and expanding political participation , and strengthening and reforming government institutions. These operations, however, have been criticized on a number of fronts.[11]

• First, it is important to identify which services are better targeted to national elites versus local leaders, a step that is sometimes neglected.
• Second, there is disagreement as to whether economic or psychological and social factors should have more emphasis in UN missions.
• Third, it is argued that missions would be more effective if they were extended for a much longer time frame.
• Fourth, it has been said that greater care must be taken in determining who the intervening actor should be.
• Fifth, some argue that peacebuilding is a Western concept and question the applicability of these efforts in non-Western contexts.
• Sixth, and finally, is the debate as to what role, if any, force can and should play in UN missions.

Summarizing the situation, Malan argues:

In certain circumstances, it seems as if the UN will be doomed if it does act, and damned if it does not act. At the heart of this dilemma is the apparent contradiction of pursuing both humanitarian and political goals in a single mission. While this great variety of actors compounds the problem of co-ordination within UN peace missions, humanitarian action has also become the substitute for UN peacekeeping when conditions are not perceived as right for the deployment of troops.[12]  

The Role of Regional Organizations

Recognizing that the UN lacked resources and local expertise to fully deal with new types of missions, Boutros-Ghali led an effort to give primacy to regional organizations in dealing with many conflicts. During the Cold War, regional organizations served as a substitute for the UN when superpower conflict hampered the functioning of the Security Council. The current trend appears to be that the UN seems willing to hand over responsibility for peace and security to any form of "coalition of the willing." The UN itself reached this conclusion in a recent report, saying:

The United Nations does not have, at this point in its history, the institutional capacity to conduct military enforcement measures under Chapter VII (of the UN Charter). Under present conditions, ad hoc Member States coalitions of the willing offer the most effective deterrent to aggression or to the escalation or spread of an ongoing conflict ... The Organisation still lacks the capacity to implement rapidly and effectively decisions of the Security Council calling for the dispatch of peacekeeping operations in crisis situations. Troops for peacekeeping missions are in some cases not made available by Member States or made available under conditions that constrain effective response. Peacemaking and human rights operations, as well as peacekeeping operations, also lack a secure financial footing, which has a serious impact on the viability of such operations.[13]

We may be seeing a division of labor emerging where police services become the domain of UN peace operations, while military operations are left largely to regional organizations or ad hoc arrangements. This fact is unlikely to alleviate concerns that missions often lack a sense of unity.[14] It does seem necessary for IGOs to take collective responsibility,[15] as the advantage of the UN is that it is a truly global voice and possesses a highly comprehensive set of institutions. At the same time, however, the developing world would like a clearer say in UN decision-making, and coordinating with regional organizations may be the most effective way for them to gain such influence.[16] Additionally, regional organizations are superior in being more familiar with local conditions, culture, and actors. They benefit from lower costs and faster response. Some argue that regional action often proves less objectionable because it is less likely the action will be seen as setting a precedent.[17] At the regional level, however, politics can lead to favoring one side over another. This perception often creates reluctance on the part of combatants to accept outside intrusion. Regional hegemons are also better able to manipulate more localized organizations.[18] What is more, most regional organizations are even more resource poor than the UN is, and the political willpower to act often is missing.[19] It may be true that regional organizations are most useful on the civilian side of peace operations, providing, for example, election or human monitors, in cooperation with the UN.[20] However, the ability of different regional organizations to respond to conflict varies a great deal.

Regional organizations have both expanded in number and, because many often overlap in a given territory, have increasingly begun to coordinate their activities. And, since the end of the Cold War, examples abound of regional organizations expanding their capacity to take on a mediation role:

• The Organization of African Unity (OAU) -- now the African Union (AU) -- added a section to its Secretariat to aid in conflict resolution,
• The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has established a new mediation role.
• Within Africa, the Inter-Governmental Agency on Drought and Development (IGADD) in the Horn of Africa,
• the Southern African Development Community (SADC),
• the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and
• the West African Economic Community (CEAO) has all mediated disputes within their respective regions.
• NATO and ECOMOG (ECOWAS Peace Monitoring Group) are two groups that have engaged in peace enforcement.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has gone farthest in working to construct common norms. It has been unique amongst most regional organizations in engaging in preventive diplomacy and peacebuilding operations. [21] What is more, it has established local offices to facilitate communication and provide advice.

Therefore, among all regional organizations, it has been able to minimize potential infighting amongst the membership as to how to deal with problems. The OSCE has had modest goals and significant success in handling ethnopolitical conflicts in Eastern Europe.[22]

The Organization of African Unity (OAU) which morphed into the African Union (AU) , on the other hand, has had limited success in dealing with regional conflict, as members are very sensitive about the protection of sovereignty. Despite the creation of new powers and a formal dispute mechanism, the OAU/AU has been largely ineffective in managing African conflicts such as those in Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Comoros. The organization has been preoccupied with efforts to resolve existing conflicts rather than trying to foresee and prevent new ones. Despite the creation of the mechanism, the OAU/AU has been an active but peripheral actor in most cases.[23] The UN and sub-regional organizations like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have often taken the lead in managing conflicts in countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia, Lesotho, and DRC. The AU's marginal role thus far can be attributed to it being new and inexperienced in the field of conflict management, the sheer overwhelming scope of conflict across the continent, and longstanding financial, organizational, and mandate issues from the pre-1993 era.[24] Other regional organizations are working to enhance their ability to respond. For example, ECOWAS and SADC are working to develop early warning capabilities.

Other Regional Organizations

Other examples exhibit mixed results. The Organization of American States (OAS) generally does not interfere in the internal workings of members, but has worked in conjunction with the UN to promote conflict resolution. The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has sought to avoid involvement in members' internal affairs, but has developed a capacity for consensus building. Since 1990, ECOWAS has been active in West Africa. Since July 1992, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have been active in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan. The European Union was paralyzed by internal disagreement on how to respond to Yugoslavia, and NATO proved useful there when the UN Security Council could not agree on a course of action. It was NATO's Implementation Force (IFOR) that took over from the over-extended UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR) in the former Yugoslavia at the end of 1995 that has brought regional peace operations to the forefront. NATO's mission in Bosnia and the Italian-led OSCE operation in Albania also served as models of regional organizations stepping in where the UN lacks the capability or the will to act.[25]

[1] There is debate within international relations as to the utility of international organizations beyond the powerful state that backs it with some seeing them driven by a dominant power, or hegemon, and others as the result of reasoned self-interested bargaining by states. See, for example, Keohane, Robert O. 1984. After hegemony: cooperation and discord in the world political economy . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, Mearsheimer, John J. 1995. The False Promise of International Institutions. International Security 19 (3):5-49.

[2] See, for example, Oye, Kenneth A., ed. 1986. Cooperation under anarchy . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

[3] Doyle 2001, p. 546.

[4] Chopra, Jarat. 1995. UN civil governance-in-trust. In Weiss, Thomas G., Ed. The United Nations and civil wars: Emerging global issues. Boulder , Colo., L. Rienner Publishers.

[5] Ratner, Steven R. 1995. The New UN Peacekeeping. New York: St. Martin's Press.

[6] The League of Nations missions in the Saar Basin and Danzig could be considered precursors to second generation missions, Ratner 1995, op, cit.

[7] Cater, Charles K., & Wermester, Karin. 2000.From Reaction to Prevention: Opportunities for the UN System in the New Millennium http://www.ipacademy.org/Publications/Reports/Research/PublRepoReseUNSyPrint.htm .

[8] Durch, William and Caroline Earle. 2000.Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations. August 2000, UN report A/55/305--S/2000/809, http://www.stimson.org/fopo/pdf/fullreport.pdf .

[9] Miall, Hugh, Oliver Ramsbotham, & Tom Woodhouse. 1999. Contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management, and transformation of deadly conflicts. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

[10] Mackinlay, John. 1995. Military responses to complex emergencies. In Weiss, Thomas G., Ed. The United Nations and civil wars: Emerging global issues. Boulder , Colo., L. Rienner Publishers.

[11] Miall, Hugh, Oliver Ramsbotham, & Tom Woodhouse. 1999. Contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management, and transformation of deadly conflicts. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 198-200.

[12] Malan, 1998.

[13] UN Report on Reform, released 16 July 1997, http://www.un.org/reform/track2/part2.htm .

[14] Malan, 1998.

[15] Peck, Connie. 2001. The Role of Regional Organizations. In Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds. Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press. Pp. 561-583.

[16] Refashioning the Dialogue: Regional Perspectives on the Brahimi Report on UN Operations http://www.ipacademy.org/PDF-Reports/REFASHIONING.pdf Organization: International Peace Academy (IPA).

[17] Wedgwood, Ruth. 1996. Regional and Subregional Organizations in International Conflict Management. In Chester A. Crocker & Fen Osler Hampson with Pamela Aall, eds. Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

[18] Miall, Hugh, Oliver Ramsbotham, and Tom Woodhouse. 1999. Contemporary conflict resolution: the prevention, management, and transformation of deadly conflicts . Malden, MA: Blackwell.

[19] Fortna , Virginia Page. 1993. Regional Organizations and Peacekeeping . Occasional Paper 11, Henry L. Stimson Center. June. Wedgwood, Ruth. 1996. Regional and Subregional Organizations in International Conflict Management. In Chester A. Crocker & Fen Osler Hampson with Pamela Aall, eds. Managing Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to International Conflict. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace.

[20] Fortna , Virginia Page. 1993. Regional Organizations and Peacekeeping . Occasional Paper 11, Henry L. Stimson Center. June.

[21] Peck, Connie. 2001. The Role of Regional Organizations. In Crocker, Chester A., Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, eds. Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press. Pp. 561-583.

[22] Troebst, Stefan. 1998.Ethnopolitical Conflicts in Eastern Europe and the OSCE: An Interim Appraisal. http://www.ecmi.de/uploads/tx_lfpubdb/brief_1.pdf .

[23] Muyangwa, Monde, and Vogt, Margaret A. Assessment of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution, 1993-2000. http://www.ipacademy.org/Publications/Reports/Africa/PublRepoAfriAssessPrint.htm .

[24] Muyangwa, Monde, and Vogt, Margaret A. Assessment of the OAU Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, and Resolution, 1993-2000. http://www.ipacademy.org/Publications/Reports/Africa/PublRepoAfriAssessPrint.htm .

[25] Mark Malan. Peacekeeping in the New Millennium: Towards 'Fourth Generation' Peace Operations' African Security Review Vol 7, No. 3, 1998. http://www.iss.co.za/Pubs/ASR/7No3/Malan.html .

Use the following to cite this article: Brahm, Eric. "Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)." Beyond Intractability . Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: March 2005 < http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/role-igo >.

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The executive head: an essay on leadership in international organization.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

The quality of executive leadership may prove to be the most critical single determinant of the growth in scope and authority of international organization. Now sufficiently long and varied to allow a comparative approach, the history of international organization may provide elements for a theory of leadership. This essay is but a preliminary effort in that direction. It is concerned not only with how the executive head protects and develops his position as top man but also with how, by doing so, he may be the creator of a new (if yet slender) world power base.

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1 The fact that ILO, particularly under the leadership of its first Director-General, Albert Thomas, has been held up as a model of dynamic leadership in international organization may excuse the prominence of the ILO case in this article. Of Thomas' leadership the best account is still Phelan , E. J. , Yes and Albert Thomas ( London : Cresset Press Limited , 1949 ) Google Scholar . More recent is Schaper , B. W. , Albert Thomas: Trente ans de réformisme social ( Assen, Netherlands : Van Gorcum & Comp. [ 1959 ]) Google Scholar .

2 Phelan, pp. 124–127.

3 Virally , Michel , “Le role politique du secrétaire-général des Nations-Unies,” Annuaire français de droit international (Vol. 4 ) ( Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique : Paris , 1958 ), pp. 360 – 399 Google Scholar .

4 This is a natural bias in most biographical studies, for example those on Albert Thomas, and would seem to be the central idea in Schwebel , Stephen M. , The Secretary-General of the United Nations: His Political Powers and Practice ( Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press , 1952 ) CrossRef Google Scholar .

5 Siotis , Jean , Essai sur le secrétariat international (Publications de l'lnstitut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, No. 41) ( Geneva : Librairie Droz , 1963 ), pp. 60 – 64 , 135ff Google Scholar ; and Gordenker , Leon , The UN Secretary-General and the Maintenance of Peace ( New York and London : Columbia University Press , 1967 ), pp. 5 – 6 , 18ff Google Scholar .

6 Beloff , Max , New Dimensions in Foreign Policy: A Study in British Administrative Experience 1947–59 ( London : George Allen & Unwin , 1961 ), pp. 39 , 58–59 Google Scholar .

7 Hammarskjöld , Dag , Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization, 16 June 1960–15 June 1961 (General Assembly Official Records [16th session], Supplement No. 1A), p. 6 Google Scholar ; also Hammarskjöld , Dag , The International Civil Servant in Law and in Fact ( Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1961 ), passim Google Scholar ; a study written in the same context is Bailey , Sydney D. , The Secretariat of the United Nations (United Nations Study No. 11) ( New York : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , 1962 ) Google Scholar .

8 Neustadt , Richard E. , Presidential Power: the politics of leadership ( New York : John Wiley and Sons , 1960 ) Google Scholar . The author describes his book as a contribution to analysis of “the classic problem of the man on top in any political system: how to be on top in fact as well as in name.” (P. vii.) Schlesinger , Arthur M. Jr , The Coming of the New Deal ( Boston : Houghton Mifflin , 1959 ) Google Scholar , especially Part 8, “Evolution of the Presidency,” adopts a similar approach. Gordenker follows Neustadt's approach in his stress on process and influence.

9 Barnard , Chester , The Functions of the Executive ( Cambridge, Mass : Harvard University Press , 1946 ) Google Scholar .

10 Haas , Ernst B. , Beyond the Nation-State: Functionalism and International Organization ( Stanford, Calif : Stanford University Press , 1964 ), especially pp. 119 ff Google Scholar .

11 Bailey, pp. 57–58; Gordenker, p. 103.

12 Loveday , Alexander , Reflections on International Administration ( Oxford : Clarendon Press , 1956 ) Google Scholar .

13 Loveday, pp. 118–119. Author's italics.

14 Cf. Ismay , Lord Hastings , NATO: The First Five Years, 1949–1954 ( Paris , 1954 ), p. 64 Google Scholar .

15 Siotis , Jean , “ Some Problems of European Secretariats ,” Journal of Common Market Studies , 03 1964 (Vol. 2 , No. 3 ), especially pp. 245 ff CrossRef Google Scholar .

16 Concerning the arrangements for top appointments in the UN see Gordenker, pp. 91ff.

17 There is a “written procedure” in force in the European Commission whereby files with decisions by each member are circulated to all the others. Anyone with experience of official bodies would assume that the principle of nonintervention would become the rule. Rarely would any member of the executive college interfere in the work of another member for fear of others crossing his own jurisdictional boundaries.

18 Phelan, pp. 28–33.

19 The parallel with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's use of the cabinet is evident from Schlesinger:

The meetings evidently retained some obscure usefulness for the President. The reaction he got from this miscellany of administrators perhaps gave him some idea of the range of public opinion. It also helped him to measure the capacity of his subordinates…. But, like all strong Presidents, Roosevelt regarded his cabinet as a body of department heads, to be dealt with individually–or, sometimes, as a group of representative intelligent men, useful for a quick canvass of opinion–not as a council of constitutional advisers.

(P. 504.) The similarity of UN practice under Lie, Hammarskjöld and Thant is pointed out by Gordenker.

20 It is, of course, difficult to disentangle at this distance in time the personal motives of Butler as regards his resignation. But these motives do not materially enter into the political analysis of the use of resignation as a weapon.

21 Letter from Hammarskjöld , , quoted in Ascoli , Max , “The Future of the U.N.—An Editorial,” Reporter ( New York ), 10 26, 1961 , p. 12 Google Scholar .

22 Goodrich , Leland M. , “ The Political Role of the Secretary-General ,” International Organization , Autumn 1962 (Vol. 16 , No. 4 ) CrossRef Google Scholar stresses the Secretary-General's role as consensus-builder and concludes that dangers to the UN might be avoided

if governments assume their responsibilities in the General Assembly and Security Council and do not place upon the Secretary-General or make it necessary for him to assume responsibilities beyond his powers and of such a nature as to expose him to serious political attack.

(Pp. 734–735.)

23 Hammarskjöld, Introduction to the Annual Report of the Secretary-General on the Work, of the Organization, 16 June 1960–15 June 1961 .

24 Perceptive executive heads have realized this, as, for example in former ILO Director-General Edward Phelan's comment to Schwebel:

The Secretary-General's activity behind the scenes is useful. But multiple consultations decide nothing. They keep the Secretary-General informed and they exercise a gentle influence. This is not the same as influencing an international, collective decision.

(Schwebel, p. 211.) Nor is it the same as influencing a government to change its policy.

25 Apter , David E. , The Politics of Modernization ( Chicago and London : University of Chicago Press , 1965 ). PP. 432 – 463 Google Scholar .

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• Volume 23, Issue 2
• Robert W. Cox
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S002081830003157X

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Free Role of the International Organisations Essay Sample

The main reason behind the formation of the international organisations in the post war era was because of what had transpired in the 1930’s. The nations of the world had reviewed the events that had almost bankrupted and devastated nations, the war had caused a disruption at a scale which had never been contemplated. The large scale destruction had urged many countries to rethink war, its pros and cons, it was then realised that the world needed an organisation that would help resolve disputes between nations, help build strong, new and independent nations.

 Now what do international organisations actually mean? International organisation as defined in the Farlex English Dictionary is an international alliance involving many different countries. The definition more suited to this context would be, an International Organisation is an organisation which has different nations as its members and performs a certain activity which is in the common interest of all those member nations. The main jobs of these International Organisations is to help maintain peace between nations, but this is only half the job; Wars generally create a lot of political and financial instability/hardships for the nations directly or indirectly involved, International Organisations help overcoming these difficulties by providing assistance through cooperation of other better situated nations.

The sudden need for an international organisation was felt after the First World War. The widespread destruction and the far reaching consequences had made the nations realize that they needed to help themselves or there would be no end to global unrest and instability. After the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War an intergovernmental organisation was formed which came to be known as The League of Nations. It was the first permanent international organisation whose mission was to maintain world peace. League of Nations and other important International Organisations and their roles in the present International System will be discussed in detail in the paper.

What role do International Organisations play in the International System is a question that first comes to the minds of people when International Organisations are being discussed. International Organisation play a very important role in the world today; In the globalised world we live in today, everything ranging from world peace to the clothes we wear have an important link to various International Organisations. In order to understand this statement we have to go down the timeline of International Organisations;

The League of Nations was the first International Organisation in the true sense, it was an organisation whose primary objective was to maintain peace between nations. Its goals as stated in its Covenant included preventing war through collective security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related treaties included labour conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and protection of minorities in Europe. The League of Nations had 58 members in its greatest extent, but it was soon realised that  the League lacked its own armed force and depended on the Great Powers to enforce its resolutions, keep to its economic sanctions, or provide an army when needed. Sanctions could hurt League members, so they were reluctant to comply with them. Numerous reasons like this led to the downfall of the League of Nations. The onset of the Second World War showed that the League had failed its primary purpose, which was to prevent any future world war. The United Nations (UN) replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.

The United Nations is an international organisation which aims to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. The United Nations currently has 193 member states, including every internationally recognised sovereign state other that the Vatican City. The organization has six principal organs:

• General Assembly- The main deliberative assembly;
• The Security Council- For deciding certain resolutions for peace and security;
• The Economic and Social Council- For assisting in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development;
• The Secretariat- For providing studies, information, and facilities needed by the UN;
• The International Court of Justice - The primary judicial organ;
• The United Nations Trusteeship Council (which is currently inactive).             

Other prominent UN System agencies include the World Health Organization (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The United Nations has been credited with negotiating 172 peaceful settlements that have ended regional conflicts. Recent cases include an end to the Iran-Iraq war, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, and an end to the civil war in El Salvador. The United Nations has used quiet diplomacy to avert imminent wars. The United Nations also has helped in promoting democracy in various countries, it has enabled people in over 45 countries to participate in free and fair elections, including those held in Cambodia, Namibia, El Salvador, Eritrea, Mozambique, Nicaragua and South Africa. The United Nations has also taken various steps to prevent nuclear proliferation; Through the International Atomic Energy Agency, United Nations has helped minimize the threat of a nuclear war by inspecting nuclear reactors in 90 countries to ensure that nuclear materials are not diverted for military purposes. The above mentioned facts clearly show how the United Nations has been successful in addressing the various issues of the International System. The importance of United Nations in regard to the maintenance of  a social order in the world cannot be stressed enough, but there are other International Organisations too which have an equal importance in ensuring growth and peace in the world.

Another important Organisation is the World Trade Organisation, The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which commenced in 1948. The organization deals with regulation of trade between participating countries; it provides a framework for negotiating and formalizing trade agreements, and a dispute resolution process aimed at enforcing participants' adherence to WTO agreements which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. The World Trade Organisation has a major role in liberalising the markets of many nations and convincing the nations to open up their markets to the rest of the world. This has been very advantageous because this had expanded the horizons of commerce and business in a way that has changed our outlook of the world.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or NATO, is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on 4 April 1949. The organization constitutes a system of collective defence whereby its member states agree to mutual defence in response to an attack by any external party. NATO had helped in ending the Cold War Lines of division which proved to be an incentive for the countries of western and central Europe to overcome long standing differences. NATO has created the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council to give a stronger political dimension to various military partnerships and has made the Partnership for Peace more operational, in order to enhance the pool of resources for joint crisis management, the benefits of which can already be seen in Bosnia and Kosovo.

It can very clearly be inferred from the text that the International Organisations have played a very important role in making the world what it is today. The International Organisations have dealt with a lot of important and pressing issues and have provided a forum for countries to come together and address and resolve disputes and issues that would have had huge implications in the future.

International Organisations are helping shape the world into a much better place. International Organisations are helping overcome challenges like poverty, disease, hunger, social unrest, ensuring equitable distribution of resources, etc. by urging nations to cooperate with one another and it undeniable that the International Organisation plays a huge role in the smooth functioning of the International System. The whole International System is dependent on the functioning of the Organisations so that we can strive to make the world our true utopian dream.

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The Role of International Organisations in World Politics

Do international organizations act for the maintenance of international peace, or are they little more than guarantors of the interests of powerful states?

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The Roles of International Organizations (IOs) in Globalizing Higher Education Policy

• First Online: 01 January 2012

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• Riyad A. Shahjahan 3  

Part of the book series: Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research ((HATR,volume 27))

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This chapter describes the dynamics involved in globalizing higher education policy vis-à-vis international organizations (IOs). It synthesizes the higher education literature to date on four key IOs that assemble a higher education global policy space, namely the World Bank (WB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Educational, Science, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the European Union (EU). Three emergent themes are presented that help us understand IOs and their relationship with higher education policy: IOs as discursive forces, IOs as networker and coordinator, and the salience and mediation of IO policy influences. Based on this literature review, it argues that the study of IOs is integral to understanding the globalization of higher education policy and recommends higher education researchers to move beyond methodological nationalism and higher educationism in policy studies.

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Acknowledgment

I appreciate the feedback and comments of Kimine Mayuzumi, Chikako Nagayama, Billroy Powell, Nana Osei-Kofi, Christopher Collins, Megan Madden, Allan Luke, William Tierney, and the five anonymous reviewers.

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Dept. Educational Policy, &, Leadership Studies, University of Iowa, Lindquist Center N491, Iowa City, 52242-1529, Iowa, USA

Michael B. Paulsen

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Shahjahan, R.A. (2012). The Roles of International Organizations (IOs) in Globalizing Higher Education Policy. In: Smart, J., Paulsen, M. (eds) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol 27. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2950-6_8

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Guest Essay

Britain’s Next Prime Minister Has Shown Us Who He Is, and It’s Not Good

By Oliver Eagleton

Mr. Eagleton is a journalist and the author of “The Starmer Project.” He wrote from London.

The outcome seems predestined. The British Conservative Party, moribund after 14 years in office and struggling to defend its record of routine corruption and economic mismanagement , is heading into Thursday’s general election with the backing of just 20 percent of the electorate. The opposition Labour Party, having run a colorless campaign whose main aim was to channel frustration with the government, is projected to win a huge parliamentary majority. That means that Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer , will be the country’s next prime minister.

How is he likely to govern? A former lawyer with a bland rhetorical style and a tendency to modify his policies, Mr. Starmer is accused by critics on the left and right alike of lacking conviction. He is labeled an enigma, a man who stands for nothing, with no plans and no principles. His election manifesto, which The Telegraph pronounced “the dullest on record,” appears to confirm the sense that he is a void and that the character of his administration defies prediction.

But a closer look at Mr. Starmer’s back story belies this narrative. His politics are, in fact, relatively coherent and consistent. Their cardinal feature is loyalty to the British state. In practice, this often means coming down hard on those who threaten it. Throughout his legal and political career, Mr. Starmer has displayed a deeply authoritarian impulse, acting on behalf of the powerful. He is now set to carry that instinct into government. The implications for Britain — a country in need of renewal, not retrenchment — are dire.

Mr. Starmer has seldom dwelt on the specifics of his legal career, and his personal motives are, of course, unknowable. But it seems clear, based on his track record, that Mr. Starmer’s outlook began to take shape around the turn of the millennium. By that time, he had gained a reputation as a progressive barrister who worked pro bono for trade unionists and environmentalists. But in 1999 he surprised many of his colleagues by agreeing to defend a British soldier who had shot and killed a Catholic teenager in Belfast. Four years later, he was hired as a human rights adviser to the Northern Ireland Policing Board — a role in which he reportedly helped police officers justify the use of guns, water cannons and plastic bullets.

Feted by the judicial establishment, Mr. Starmer was hired to run the Crown Prosecution Service in 2008, putting him in charge of criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. Professional success brought him closer to the state, which he repeatedly sought to shield from scrutiny. He did not bring charges against the police officers who killed Jean Charles de Menezes , a Brazilian migrant who was mistaken for a terrorist suspect and shot seven times in the head. Nor did Mr. Starmer prosecute MI5 and MI6 agents who faced credible accusations of complicity in torture. Nor were so-called spy cops — undercover officers who infiltrated left-wing activist groups and manipulated some of their members into long-term sexual relationships — held accountable.

He took a different tack with those he saw as threatening law and order. After the 2010 student demonstrations over a rise in tuition fees, he drew up legal guidelines that made it easier to prosecute peaceful protesters. The following year, when riots erupted in response to the police killing of Mark Duggan , Mr. Starmer organized all-night court sittings and worked to increase the severity of sentencing for people accused of participating. During his tenure, state prosecutors fought to extradite Gary McKinnon, an I.T. expert with autism who had embarrassed the U.S. military by gaining access to its databases, and worked to drag out the case against the WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange.

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