Rise of International Organizations

Regional Organizations in the World

Three Essential Conditions for IOs to Exist

Independent political communities• Without which a

regulatory structure would be essentially imperial or hegemonial

Rules of agreed among such communities that purport to regulate their relations with each other• Without which orderly

relations would be a random consequence of informal interaction among sovereign entities

A formal structure to implement and enforce the rules• Without which rule of

enforcement would depend on diplomacy and statecraft rather that at least some element of management by a standing body created for that purpose

Rise of IOs• Significantly shape the modern

world order• For some, they are considered

the earliest IGOs– Amphictyonic Council of ancient

Greece• Members engaged in common

religious obervance and protect the shrine of Delphi

– Ancient international societies like Imperial China, Egypt, and India

– Medieval Christendom• Composed of ecumenical councils,

chivalric orders, and complex and far-reaching international legal structures

The 19th Century Development

• The most favourable climate for the proliferation of IGOs

• The impact of Industrial Revolution

• The European imperialism contributed for the emergence of a highly complex worldwide economic network in four distinct ways.

The Impact of European Imperialism

The greater the number of international transactions increased the risk of conflict arising out of some trivial dispute.

Agreed regulations and common standards had to be determined for such purposes as patenting inventions, classifying good for custom duties and deciding exchange rates between currencies.

Traditional insistence by states upon a rigid interpretation of their sovereign rights was emerging a significant barrier to the efficient conduct of international business.

The economies of the major powers were becoming increasingly interdependent, which provided them with certain interests to set against their many rivalries.

The Impact of European Imperialism

• Growing tendency to accept international arbitration or various types of disputes

• A standard formula ran:“neither honour nor

vital interests” were involved

The greater the number of international transactions increased the risk of conflict arising out of some trivial dispute.

The Impact of European Imperialism

• Public international institutions were established to deal with such matters

• At the end of 19th century, there was an international standardisation even to affect less technical and more obviously political areas like protection of workers and children

Agreed regulations and common standards had to be determined for such purposes as patenting inventions, classifying good for custom duties and deciding exchange rates between currencies.

The Impact of European Imperialism

• IGOs reduced these barries• Example– The Universal Postal Union

(formerly General Postal Union) in 1818 adopted procedures that are still quite radical including the compulsory arbitration of disputes and majority voting.

Traditional insistence by states upon a rigid interpretation of their sovereign rights was emerging as a significant barrier to the efficient conduct of international business.

The Impact of European Imperialism

• Major powers attempted to translate this interdependence into institutional form through the establishment of international commissions to regulate the trade in specific commodities, such as sugar.

• Turning once purely national questions into matters of general concern

• The aim to control diseases culminated in the conception of Sanitary Convention of 1903 and International Office of Public Hygiene in 1907.

The economies of the major powers were becoming increasingly interdependent, which provided them with certain interests to set against their many rivalries.

END