International Organization in Time investigates the effects of reform programs on international organizations (IOs). Drawing on insights from historical institutionalism and sociological organization theory, the book develops a theory of IO fragmentation to account for the centrifugal tendencies of the global polity. Focusing on the reform problems in the United Nations system in general and the World Health Organization in particular, the findings of International Organization in Time not only advance scholarly understanding of institutional development beyond the state, but also raise important questions about the legitimacy of international organizations.
International Organizations and the Media in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries is the first volume to explore the historical relationship between international organizations and the media. Beginning in the early nineteenth century and coming up to the 1990s, the volume shows how people around the globe largely learned about international organizations and their activities through the media and images created by journalists, publicists, and filmmakers in texts, sound bites, and pictures. The book examines how interactions with the media are a formative component of international organizations. At the same time, it questions some of the basic assumptions about how media promoted or enabled international governance. Written by leading scholars in the field from Europe, North America, and Australasia, and including case studies from all regions of the world, it covers a wide range of issues from humanitarianism and environmentalism to Hollywood and debates about international information orders. Bringing together two burgeoning yet largely unconnected strands of research—the history of international organizations and international media histories—this book is essential reading for scholars of international history and those interested in the development and impact of media over time.
The third edition of this popular core textbook provides wide-ranging coverage of the structure, internal working, policies and performance of international organizations such as the UN, EU, IMF and World Bank. Such organizations have never been so important in addressing the challenges that face our increasingly globalised world. This book introduces students to theories with which to approach international organizations, their history, and their ability to respond to contemporary issues in world politics from nuclear disarmament, climate change and human rights protection, to trade, monetary and financial relations, and international development. Underpinning the text is the authors' unique model that views international organizations as actual organizations. Reacting to world events, political actors provide the 'inputs' which are converted by the political systems of these organizations (through various decision-making procedures) into 'outputs' that achieve varying levels of real-world impact and effectiveness. This is the perfect text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of politics and international relations taking courses on International organization and global governance, as well as essential reading for those studying the UN, the EU and Globalization. New to this Edition: - Draws on the most recent research in the field and considers some of the significant world events of the last decade to ensure that the book is completely up to date. - Two separate chapters considering Trade and Development, and Finance and Monetary Relations respectively. - Fully accounts for the challenges to international organizations by the emerging powers, the Trump administration and Brexit
Virtually every important question of public policy today involves an international organization. From trade to intellectual property to health policy and beyond, governments interact with international organizations in almost everything they do. Increasingly, individual citizens are directly affected by the work of international organizations. Aimed at academics, students, practitioners, and lawyers, this book gives a comprehensive overview of the world of international organizations today. It emphasizes both the practical aspects of their organization and operation, and the conceptual issues that arise at the junctures between nation-states and international authority, and between law and politics. While the focus is on inter-governmental organizations, the book also encompasses non-governmental organizations and public policy networks. With essays by the leading scholars and practitioners, the book first considers the main international organizations and the kinds of problems they address. This includes chapters on the organizations that relate to trade, humanitarian aid, peace operations, and more, as well as chapters on the history of international organizations. The book then looks at the constituent parts and internal functioning of international organizations. This addresses the internal management of the organization, and includes chapters on the distribution of decision-making power within the organizations, the structure of their assemblies, the role of Secretaries-General and other heads, budgets and finance, and other elements of complex bureaucracies at the international level. This book is essential reading for scholars, practitioners, and students alike.
This book asks what the legal definition of an international organization is by examining how they create particular legal systems that derive from international law, and analysing the systems of governance in these organizations.
International organizations have come to play a central role in world politics. The authors present a major new attempt to explain the difference - and the similarities - between them, as well as their crucial role
The proliferation of international organizations is presently a hot issue. New international organizations have been created over the last few years, such as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the World Trade Organization. At the same time a certain reluctance may be observed to create new organizations. Overlapping activities and conflicting competences occur frequently and the need for coordination is evident. The events in former Yugoslavia are an example. Both during the armed conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo and afterwards in the era of reconstruction, the need to coordinate the work of organizations such as the UN, NATO, the EU, the World Bank, OSCE, and the Council of Europe was vital. Against this background a number of legal issues have become more important that have not yet been researched extensively, perhaps the only exception being the proliferation of international tribunals. Questions include the following: Why were new organizations created while others already existed in the same or a related field? What specific legal problems have arisen that are related to the coexistence of different organizations working (partly) in the same area? What mechanisms or instruments have been developed to coordinate the activities and to solve legal problems? These and other questions were discussed during a conference that took place from 18 to 20 November, 1999, in the Academy Building of Leiden University, The Netherlands. A large number of experts, both academics and practitioners, participated. The purpose of this book is to present the issues discussed during the Leiden conference to a larger audience. This book contains the adapted papers for the conference and several other contributions.
While most studies focus on states as principals and international bureaucrats as agents, [the author] demonstrates that many international bureaucrats have mastered the art of insulating themselves from state control.
International Politics and Institutions in Time is the definitive exploration, by a group of leading international relations scholars, of the contribution of the historical institutionalism tradition for the study of international politics. Historical institutionalism is a counterpoint to the rational choice and sociological traditions of analysis in the study of international institutions, bringing particular attention to how timing and sequence of past events, path dependence, and other processes impact distributions of global power, policy choices, and the outcome of international political battles. This book places particular emphasis on the sources of stability and change in major international institutions, such as those shaping state sovereignty and global governance, including in the areas of international organization, law, political economy, human rights, environment, and security. Featuring work by pioneering scholars, the volume is the most comprehensive collection to date on historical institutionalism in IR. It is projected to be of interest to multiple audiences including the international relations community, to historians, especially as that field is experiencing its own 'international' and 'global' turns, as well as sociologists and economists who work on institutions and international affairs.
