Membership In International Organizations Research Articles

Greece Eyes CERN, ESA Cuts to Plug Budget Gap

To plug a €10 million hole in its science budget while avoiding the closure of domestic research centers, Greece has begun renegotiating its subscriptions to and memberships in international organizations.

Preventing protectionism: International institutions and trade policy

This paper examines the role of international institutions in preventing the rise of protectionism. We analyze states’ choices in trade policy during the current global economic crisis, a situation likely to exacerbate uncertainty in the conduct of commercial relations and to push countries toward “beggar-thy-neighbor” trade policies. The main argument of the paper is that the numerous international institutions present in the international system during the current economic crisis serve as conveyors of information and mechanisms of commitment and socialization. They mitigate the uncertainty problem that prevails in prisoner’s dilemma settings such as trade. Economic international organizations increase the flow of information about the preferences and behaviors of its members. Non-economic organizations also have a role to play as social environments that encourage cooperation. Specialized international institutions devoted to trade, such as the WTO and preferential trade agreements (PTAs), not only provide monitoring and enforcement functions but also lock in commitments to liberal trade through legal obligations that make defections costly. We test our argument using a dataset of trade policies during the current economic crisis and of membership in international organizations. The paper finds strong support for the role of international institutions as commitment and socialization mechanisms in preventing the rise of protectionism.

Dependence Networks and the International Criminal Court1

This article explores why governments commit to human rights enforcement by joining the International Criminal Court (ICC). Compared with other international institutions, the ICC has substantial authority and autonomy. Since governments traditionally guard their sovereignty carefully, it is puzzling that the ICC was not only established, but established so rapidly. Looking beyond traditional explanations for joining international institutions, this study identifies a new causal factor: a country's dependence network, which consists of the set of other states that control resources the country values. This study captures different dimensions of what states value through trade relations, security alliances, and shared memberships in international organizations. Using event history analysis on monthly data from 1998 to 2004, we find that dependence networks strongly affect whether and when a state signs and ratifies the ICC. Some types of ratification costs also influence state commitment, but many conventional explanations of state commitment receive little empirical support.

Principles of livestock development in the Republic of Serbia

Livestock production is an important branch of agriculture in the Republic of Serbia because it provides necessary products (milk, meat, eggs). In addition, livestock production provides raw materials for food industry and leather industry. Livestock production is expected to provide quality products for export, primarily beef and lamb. There is an opportunity for export of cheese (especially sheep and goat milk cheese) with defined origin and standard of quality. However, based on available data, the situation in livestock production is assessed as negative. In the last years, number of heads of all species of domestic animals has decreased continuously. In several years, Serbia will become member of European Union (EU). This means that livestock production should prepare for competition in the single developed market, without any state trade barriers. Serbia's membership in international organizations, liberalization of trade in livestock products, a small possibility of protection from imports, the implementation of quality standards (HACCP, ISO, Global GAP), reduced levels of domestic support, elimination of export subsidies, increase profitability and ability to be competitive on the international market. Based on these circumstances, it is necessary to build efficient livestock production that can compete in the European market contributing to the growth of farmers and national income.

EU Autonomy and Decisions of (Quasi-) Judicial Bodies: How Much Differentness is Needed?

Over many years the European Union (EU) has developed its own state-like foreign policy - newly labelled ‘external action’. One important dimension of this external action is participation in international legal regimes (membership in international organizations and signing of multilateral conventions). Because of the EU’s internal complexity participation in international legal regimes raises many issues of a constitutional nature. The Court of Justice has repeatedly been asked to scrutinize whether a particular case of participation is in compliance with EU law. In this regard, it is fair to say that the Court of Justice’s greatest concern has been the preservation of the EU’s autonomy vis-a-vis international (quasi-) judicial bodies. Indeed, it has not so far accepted to be submitted to the authority of any external (quasi-) judicial structure. The two most prominent examples of international (quasi-) judicial bodies that have had and will continue to have a normative impact on the EU are the dispute settlement mechanism of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). As is well-known the EU is a member of the WTO, while negotiations for accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) are on-going. Some of the questions addressed in this paper are: How does, will and should the Court of Justice deal with the decisions of these two (quasi-) judicial bodies? Why does the Court of Justice show so much concern for the autonomy of the European legal order? Indeed, should it be more concerned about the autonomy of the EU than constitutional courts are concerned about national autonomy?

Does membership in international organizations increase governments’ credibility? Testing the effects of delegating powers

This paper analyzes whether nation-state governments can increase their credibility by becoming members of international organizations. It is hypothesized that the degree of delegation to international organizations can improve the credibility of nation-state governments. This hypothesis is tested by introducing three new indicators for international delegation. On the basis of panel data for up to 136 countries and the time period from 1984 to 2004, membership in international organizations is significantly and robustly linked with better credibility, here proxied for by country risk ratings.

Perceptions of a Glass Ceiling: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Mexican and American Employees

This study asks employees in the United States and Mexico if they believe there is workplace discrimination based on gender, age, or ethnicity. As members of international organizations, the United States and Mexico have agreed to strive for the elimination of employment discrimination. Hypotheses based on Hofstedes Power Distance Index (PDI) predicted cultural differences in the two countries would result in a higher perception of workplace discrimination from employees in the United States than those in Mexico. The results support the hypotheses; directions are offered for future research.

Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development: With Special Reference to India Issues and Challenges

Any country’s environmental problems are related to the level of its economic development, the availability of natural resources and the lifestyle of its population. In India, rapid growth of population, poverty, urbanization, industrialization and several related factors are responsible for the rapid degradation of the environment. Environmental problems have become serious in many parts of the country, and hence cannot be ignored. The main environmental problems in India relate to air and water pollution particularly in metropolitan cities and industrial zones, degradation of common property resources which affect the poor adversely as they depends on them for their livelihood, threat to biodiversity and inadequate system of solid waste disposal and sanitation with consequent adverse impact on health, infant mortality and birth rate. In India, efforts are being made on for the environmental management in a sustainable manner.. At all levels of education provisions have been made for the knowledge of environment and its conservation. In the country many centres are providing special training for environmental management. The programmes of environmental awareness have been launched through media. India is an active member of International Organizations concerning environment. Several programmes are going on under UNEP. The Government has recently started emphasizing the combined use of regulatory and economic instruments for improving environmental quality. There is a need for coordination between government agencies, NGOs and the public for the proper management of environment quality and to achieve sustainable development in the country.

Beyond Kantian Liberalism

Although globalization has become one of the most salient issues in the study of international relations during the past few decades, its net effect on international conflict remains unexplored. I argue that although the manifold phenomena of globalization may conflict (i.e. produce both positive and negative influences), its overall consequences help foster a common peaceful disposition among national leaders who are then less likely to resort to arms in times of crisis. Based on a cross-sectional, time-series dyadic data analysis for 114 countries during the period from 1970 to 2001, this study reports that socio-economic and political globalization in its entirety generates a dampening effect on militarized interstate disputes. Even when common conflict-related control variables such as democracy, economic interdependence, joint membership in international organizations, and others are incorporated into the analysis, globalization emerges as the most powerful explanatory variable. Consequently, globalization when taken in its entirety represents an unambiguous force for interstate peace.

The Regulatory State Goes Global: EU Participation in International Food Standard-Setting by the Codex Alimentarius Commission

Since 2003 the European Community (on behalf of the EU) has been a member of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC or “Codex”), the international food standard-setting body of the United Nations. Full membership in international organisations (IOs) still constitutes a rare exception within the broad spectrum of the EU’s external relations. The proposed paper analyses this exceptional case with regard to the preconditions, the legal-institutional arrangements and the consequences - to the extent that they are already visible - of EC membership in the Codex. In terms of methods and materials, the analysis relies on official documents as well as on observations made in meetings of the Codex and of the intra-EU coordinating body (a special working party of the Council).First, in order to shed light on the motivations for joining the Codex, its eminent role in the context of current world trade law is briefly explained. Subsequent sections of the paper deal with the lengthy negotiations that took place between the European Commission and the member states (MS), on the one hand, and between the EU and other Codex members, on the other - which arguments were made in these negotiations for and against separate (from the MS) Codex membership of the EC, which institutional arrangements were considered on the European and on the international level, and which positions eventually carried the day? It is shown that MS agreement to EC membership was conditional on a rather complicated arrangement for the intra-European division of competencies. The functioning of this arrangement is therefore described first in general terms, and then with regard to two recent conflicts - concerning geographical indications and contaminant residues, respectively - where it reached the limits of its effectiveness. On this empirical basis, the paper finally assesses the consequences of the EC’s membership in the Codex with regard to “vertical” relations between EU institutions and the MS, and “horizontal” relations between the EU and other Codex member countries. The concluding section briefly turns to the more general question of whether the widely shared but elusive goal of effective and coherent EU external action is easier to attain under the condition of IO membership than with other types of common or coordinated foreign policy. Proposals for the EC/EU to join relevant international organisations have recently been made also in other policy areas, and some cautious lessons can be drawn from the present case for such proposals’ chances to succeed.

Technical and Institutional States: Loose Coupling in the Human Rights Sector of the World Polity

While human rights treaties have become increasingly popular over the past quarter century, there has not been a corresponding improvement in human rights practices. This discrepancy implies that a country's formal pledge to uphold human rights principles is “loosely coupled” from its actual performance. In this study, I develop a model of loose coupling based on organizational research and apply it to the human rights sector of the world polity. Empirically, I identify a set of institutional states whose human rights practices fall short of their treaty commitments, as well as a set of technical states whose practices exceed their commitments. Analyzing an unbalanced data set with a maximum of 755 observations across 167 countries during the 1975 to 2000 period, I use random effects models to predict a state's location on the Human Rights Decoupling Index (HRDI). The findings illustrate the importance of several organizational concepts for predicting a state's HRDI score. In particular, the analyses reveal the countervailing effects of globalization. While economic globalization (i.e., trade and foreign investment) is associated with the technical (positive) end of the HRDI, cultural globalization (i.e., memberships in international organizations) is associated with the institutional (negative) end.

Membership Has its Privileges – The Effect of Membership in International Organizations on FDI

We argue that membership in International Organizations (IOs) is an important determinant of FDI inflows. To the extent that membership restricts a country from pursuing policies that are harmful to investors, it can signal low political risk. Using data over the 1971-2005 period, we find that membership in IOs does indeed increase inflows of FDI. Controlling for the endogeneity of membership, we find this effect to be substantively important and robust to the method of estimation.

Membership has Its Privileges - The Effect of Membership in International Organizations on FDI

We argue that membership in International Organizations (IOs) is an important determinant of FDI inflows. To the extent that membership restricts a country from pursuing policies that are harmful to investors, it can signal low political risk. Using data over the 1971-2005 period, we find that membership in IOs does indeed increase inflows of FDI. Controlling for the endogeneity of membership, we find this effect to be substantively important and robust to the method of estimation.

Příležitosti malé ekonomiky v globalizaci

The text deals with the position of small countries, defined as countries with populations under 16 million, in today's globalized world. Their advantages and disadvantages, but especially the opportunities that globalization offers these countries, are discussed. Small countries can overcome their smallness by market acquisition, acquisition of missing production factors, regionalism and advantages of membership in international organisations and taking advantage of the existence of international financial markets. Governments also play an important role. The article is illustrated with A. T. Kearney Globalization Index for the economic, personnel, technological and political dimensions of globalization processes.

Does Membership in International Organizations Increase Governments' Credibility? Testing the Effects of Delegating Powers

This paper analyzes whether nation-state governments can increase their credibility by becoming members of international organizations. Credibility is an important asset because it determines the real interest rate and is expected to have an important impact on investment and growth. It is hypothesized that the degree of delegation to international organizations can improve the credibility of nation-state governments. This hypothesis is tested by introducing three new indicators for international delegation. On the basis of panel data for up to 136 countries and the time period from 1984 to 2004, membership in international organizations is significantly and robustly linked with better credibility, here proxied for by country risk ratings. Two more results stand out: the longer a country has had a high level of membership, the higher its credibility, ceteris paribus; and: the credibility-enhancing effect is strongest in countries whose domestic institutions are weak.

International Organizations Count

This special issue seeks to move forward the development of an empirical research agenda that takes seriously the complexity of how international organizations (IOs) function and the need to study that complexity at all levels of analysis by using robust research tools. We advocate for a broad empirical research approach that molds and sharpens theories about IOs by conducting systematic tests in large-sample environments. Two themes create a common thread throughout this issue. First, shifting the focus from whether IOs matter to how they work requires acknowledgment of the contingency of cause and effect. A second common thread lies in the authors' treatment of IO membership as an aggregate phenomenon—that is, as a set of institutions and relationships evolving over time and with many members rather than as a single organization.

Civil—Military Structure, Political Communication, and the Democratic Peace

Looking beyond the democratic/Kantian peace argument that highlights the pacifying effect of regime type on international conflict, this study explores additional, potentially important domestic factors that may influence conflict — most notably, civil—military structure, such as degree of civil versus military control and military manpower system. It also looks into the effects of political communication in terms of diplomatic channels and open media. On the basis of logistic regression analysis for 120 countries during the period from 1950 to 1992, the authors report that strong military influence is more likely to lead to the onset of militarized interstate disputes, wars, and international crises while the presence of conscripted soldiers, diplomatic activities, and open media makes that less likely. These results hold up in the presence of the three Kantian peace variables (i.e. democracy, economic interdependence, and joint membership in international organizations) and other control variables that are standards within contemporary research designs. Thus, the authors conclude that the four factors are important complements to understanding the impact of domestic traits on interstate conflict beyond the conventional regime-type explanation of the democratic/Kantian peace.

Committed To Peace: Liberal Institutions and the Termination of Rivalry

Rivalry is characterized by mutual mistrust, anger and fear, and becomes increasingly intractable as confrontations between rivals militarize. The empirical record confirms that rivalries account for the vast number of militarized interstate disputes and wars in the international system. Although considerable attention has been spent on the initiation, duration or termination of rivalries, to date no comprehensive theoretical framework for their persistence or failure exists. Following Fearon, a rationalist explanation of rivalry termination is developed. It is argued here that the adoption of liberal institutions helps alleviate the commitment problems arising in rivalry. Free-market reform, democratic institutions and membership in international organizations all build trust and increase defection costs among rival states, and therefore help to shorten the duration of rivalry. Using a Cox proportional hazard model and Thompson's data on rivalries, it is shown that change towards democracy, as well as the joint effect of democracy and economic development increase the likelihood of rivalry termination. Also, joint membership in international organizations with mechanisms for dispute settlement reduces the duration of rivalry.Arobustness check using Diehl and Goertz's list of rivalries produces similar results.

Regulating Statehood: The Kosovo Status Settlement

On 2 February 2007 the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General unveiled a comprehensive proposal for a supervised independence of Kosovo with a view of clinching the last chapter of the dismemberment of Yugoslavia. This proposal constitutes a further attempt by the international community of states to bridle the volatile and unpredictable phenomenon of statehood. The state of Kosovo that is envisaged by the Status Settlement is to be endowedwith all the features that are nowadays seen as indispensable for the establishment of a modern government apparatus, a tendency that had already beenobserved in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina or East Timor. The proposed regulation of statehood in this case, however, proves to be of an unprecedented extent. Against that backdrop, the article grapples with the legal questions revolving around the independence of Kosovo, including secession, recognition, succession, international supervision, self-determination, and membership of international organizations.

Incentive Effects of State Liability for Wrongful Conviction on the Level of Crime

The criminal justice system is not infallible. This unfortunate but unavoidable fact has been known for some time. For many reasons, in spite of advocacy raised as early as 1913 by Borchard to offer compensation to those wrongfully convicted and later exonerated, currently in the United States only 15 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have laws for such compensation. Further, the compensation is fairly meager, and compensation is usually not granted if the alleged criminal pleaded guilty in cases involving confessions. Outside the United States, a different era seems to be on the horizon. In recent years, the scope of state liability has been expanding through membership in international organizations and through international treaties. In particular, the Council of Europe's Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms encourages compensation for anyone punished as a result of a wrongful conviction. Article 3 of Protocol 7, Compensation for Wrongful Conviction, states that: When a person has by a final decision been convicted of a criminal offence and when subsequently his conviction has been reversed, or he has been pardoned, on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows conclusively that there has been a miscarriage of justice, the person who has suffered punishment as a result of such conviction shall be compensated according to the law or the practice of the State concerned, unless it is proved that the non-disclosure of the unknown fact in time is wholly or partly attributable to him. Although this article lacks specifics, it clearly endorses compensation for the wrongfully convicted. People who are wrongfully convicted and later exonerated should be compensated for many reasons. The wrongfully accused typically incur huge legal expenses for defense. They lose their earning opportunities and their reputations while in prison, and they suffer psychological harm. It is just to compensate these victims - society is responsible for rectifying its errors by helping these victims regain normal lives when they are released from prison. Following Borchard, scholars also raised the possibility of applying eminent domain principles to compensate those wrongfully convicted, making the case that takings are involved when these victims are incarcerated. Against this backdrop, our paper attempts to study the compensation problem in a different direction. We ask whether expanding the scope of state liability would improve the well-being of citizens after public wrongs occur. In particular, we propose that compensating the wrongfully convicted after exoneration could affect the aggregate level of crime. A model will be developed in which we first point out that the possibility of wrongful conviction, although it cannot be avoided, in fact increases the amount of crime committed as compared to the idealistic case of no erroneous conviction. Then the simple model is extended to show why state liability for wrongful conviction changes criminal behavior. We conclude that the net impact of the expansion of state liability is that the aggregate level of crime decreases.