Role Of Intergovernmental Organizations Research Articles

Yves SCHEMEIL, The Making of the World: How International Organizations Shape Our Future (Opladen, Verlag Barbara Budrich, 2023)

The role of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the global system is a contentious issue. States delegate some responsibilities and in certain instances accept growing autonomy. Coalitions address complex environments, wasteful overlaps and jurisdictional trespass, turning them into productive divisions of labor. Therefore, Yves Schemeil aims to explain in his new book, The Making of the World: How International Organizations Shape Our Future, the expansion, collaboration, competition, and death of international organizations (IO), offering “a concise and topical discussion” to distinguish the book from the IOs literature.

Understanding the Global Climate Change Regimes

Climate change is considered as one of the most hazardous security threats, which contains challenges for carbon-emitting countries as well as non-emitting countries. International regimes have been engaged in mitigating climate-related effects as these threats are more lethal than terrorism and any other traditional security threats. International regimes for climate change are being developed through an evolutionary process and currently working on different levels to combat the perils of climate change. Their efficiency is always under consideration by nonemitting states that are victims of climate change, consequently through developed or carbon-emitting states. The study identifies efficient and valuable work of climate regimes and provides a critical approach to so far work done on climate change to diminish its effects worldwide. The research includes the responsibility of various factors to mitigate the consequences of climate change i.e. role of carbon-emitting and nonemitting states and the role of inter-governmental organizations.

The global governance of international development: Documenting the rise of multi-stakeholder partnerships and identifying underlying theoretical explanations

The global governance of development increasingly relies on multi-stakeholder partnerships between states, intergovernmental organizations, and non-governmental organizations. This article takes on two tasks. The first is to describe quantitatively the institutional evolution of the multilateral development system over the past century. The second is to juxtapose four rational-institutionalist explanations for why states establish new organizations as transnational governance initiatives—functionalism, power-oriented theories, domestic politics, and contextual design. The empirical analysis probes these explanations using the new Transnational Public-Private Governance Initiatives in World Politics dataset, which combines several existing data sources to build the most comprehensive data on different forms of institutionalized cooperation in global governance. The results lend most support to the contextual design view, while also yielding support for other accounts. By employing Heckman selection models, the analysis addresses potential selection bias due to unobserved correlation between state choices to create a new organization and its design. A qualitative case study further validates measurement choices and causal mechanisms. These findings have implications for theories of institutional design and development practice, specifically regarding the role of intergovernmental organizations in an increasingly interconnected world.

Complexities of the Baltic Sea regulatory framework

The Baltic Sea Region is subject to international regulation at the global level, through EU legislation, and sub-regionally. This article aims is to identify features of the regulatory framework both in terms of the nature of core legal instruments and the role of intergovernmental organizations. As the article seeks to identify interconnections between the regulatory layers, the role of EU law for Baltic Sea cooperation warrants special attention. EU law, the article claims, not only comes with a promise of monitoring and enforcement, but can also be a main source of diffusion of the regulatory process. Further, while EU law structures the regulatory scene in accordance with EU competence, it excludes one Baltic Sea littoral state – the Russian Federation. For this reason alone, the global and regional levels retain their importance, underlining also the importance of regulatory interaction.

Making norms to tackle global challenges: The role of Intergovernmental Organisations

This paper argues that Intergovernmental Organisations (IGOs) can play a significant role in the processes of system transformation required by Grand Challenges. The reason is their potential to influence socio-technical regimes connected to policy areas in which they have authority. Supported by mandates, moral standing and technical expertise, IGOs act in two ways: operating with high level of political support, these organisations guide priority setting and norm development through the definition of collective problems and solutions, including STI aspects, establishing a shared vision; involving public and private actors, IGOs implement and protect novel practices that reinforce the new norms, from legally binding agreements to the creation of new spaces for international collaboration. These processes are examined here in the field of global health, where outside pressure directed at the intellectual property rules in connection to access to medicines prompted the WHO to define the health challenge as a need to stimulate innovation and ensure wide access to technology at the same time. Two of the solutions implemented by IGOs to achieve both goals are analysed: the Medicines Patent Pool, designed by UNITAID to fulfil access and innovation needs in relation to HIV/AIDS drugs, and WIPO Re:Search, set up by WIPO to support collaboration and accelerate discovery and product development for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

The Role of Intergovernmental Organizations in the “Battle over Framing”

Current studies focusing on the media’s coverage of international conflicts have largely overlooked the important role that intergovernmental bodies may play in their framing. Still missing is an examination of how and to what degree do actions performed by such bodies help define the way journalists report on ongoing conflicts. We claim that in the absence of credible state actors to rely on for information during conflict, journalists will turn to statements made by international bodies as alternative sources of authority to shape their reporting. This study uses framing theory to examine how the United Nations General Assembly and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) became the primary definers for the international media during its coverage of the Israeli–West Bank separation barrier. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis, we examine the major news items related to the barrier that appeared between the years 2002 and 2011 in four leading newspapers in the United States and the United Kingdom ( New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, and the Times). We determine what main media frames were being used during coverage of the barrier and point to the drastic change that occurred in their dominance following actions performed by the ICJ.

The Role of Intergovernmental Organizations in Cross-border Knowledge Transfer and Innovation

Nonmarket organizations play a supportive role in knowledge transfer and innovation domestically, but national differences between them can create barriers to cross-border knowledge transfer. Internationally oriented nonmarket organizations—ones that develop international ties and partnerships—may generate commonalities among participants and promote a set of similar rules, expectations, and norms across different countries and thus may be effective in supporting cross-border knowledge transfer and innovation. We focus on one such kind of organization, the intergovernmental organization (IGO), as a country’s connectedness to learning-oriented IGOs may have a positive influence on national innovation. Using an illustrative caselet on one IGO, the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum, and an empirical analysis spanning 83 countries from 1996 to 2006, we find that the extent of connectedness to the learning-oriented IGO network enables national innovation. But countries differ in the extent to which they can leverage external knowledge for innovation because of the variation in relationships among local constituencies.

Catch Me If You Can: or how policy networks help tackle the crime–terror nexus

This paper introduces the concept of a policy network existing between intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) participating in the international policy-making process of anti-money laundering (AML) and the combating of financing of terrorism (CFT) regulations. It begins by introducing the challenges to global governance presented by organised crime and terrorist organisations, as well as the ways in which the international community is responding by means of following the money. Firstly, the paper defines which actors are involved in the process of policy-making activities and how their actions constitute a ‘mirror’ crime–terror nexus. Secondly, the role of IGOs and their ability to form policy networks is highlighted as increasingly important in the tackling of transnational threats and as an innovative response mechanism. Finally the paper suggests that more needs to be done in order to address the issues of accountability that stem from addressing global threats through the AML/CFT network.

Legitimacy, Identity and Climate Change: moving from international to world society?

Resource scarcity and climate change could provoke major inter-state and intra-state violence and humanitarian emergencies, an especial threat to the global South. This article examines the dynamics that have followed the major violent crises of the past few centuries to determine whether climate-change-induced conflict might paradoxically generate norms of non-violence and collective identification, and in turn lead to a more co-operative culture of anarchy. Especially since 1945 we have witnessed the development of a ‘security community’ in the North Atlantic—that is, a group of states that not only resolve conflict without resort to violence but also consider war among their members unthinkable. Such communities might develop in other regions in two stages. First, state internalisation of liberal norms of democracy and human rights may enhance the role of intergovernmental organisations in mitigating climate-change-induced conflict. Second, collective identification among states and individuals may be stimulated by structural similarity between increasingly democratic states, the perception of a common fate arising from shared threats, and an expanding global civil society and epistemic communities preoccupied with climate change. Climate change could thus spur movement towards more legitimate and authoritative intergovernmental organisations within a world society that would be more effective at solving common problems than those operating within today's more fragmented international society.

Shifting governance in STI: an analysis of the global governance institutions and their impact on South African policy

Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy is increasingly part of global politics. This article develops the argument that the governance of STI policy shifted with South Africa's transition to democracy and its re-integration into the international system. The traditionally inward oriented policy field has undergone a shift in governance towards internationalisation. This paper assesses these changes and their impact on South Africa's policymaking processes. The discussion seeks to span two disciplines, international relations and economic research on innovation, recognising the role of intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) in domestic STI policymaking. We argue that the relationship between IGOs and national governments is two-sided and changes over time. The case of the South African government shows how it changed from the receiving end of the policy advice from IGOs towards an active force in shaping the international system with regard to STI, and pursuit of its own interests through spreading and setting up international norms. We hypothesise that these changes result from increasing governance capability and policy learning. These relationships between national and international actors and the role of international organisations in domestic STI policy formulation will be disentangled in this paper presenting two main findings. Firstly, the analysis of the global governance architecture in STI shows that international legalisation in STI has changed towards soft law mechanisms. In the early days of STI, international organisations focused mainly on regulating intellectual property rights (IPR), while today various UN agencies, OECD committees and Bretton Woods institutions seek to influence governments through rankings, reviews, policy advice, performance measurement, data collection and periodical surveillance. Secondly, during its process of reintegration into the international political system, the South African government demonstrated an evolution from exclusively receiving IGO's policy advice to increasingly becoming an initiator of international policy platforms in STI.

The Corruption Eruption in East-Central Europe: The Increased Salience of Corruption and the Role of Intergovernmental Organizations

This article focuses on the increased salience of corruption in East-Central Europe. It shows that press coverage of the issue is much greater than in the past and also greater than in other regions with comparable or higher levels of corruption. This finding is relevant because anticorruption rhetoric can have an important impact on political and economic developments, one that is partially independent of the actual levels of corruption. The study investigates several domestic and international factors that may have led to this development and finds that the role of intergovernmental organizations has been essential in bringing the issue to the forefront of public debates. Moreover, it shows that the European Union has recently been more effective in raising the salience of corruption in the region than other organizations. The article concludes with a discussion of the effect that EU membership may have on future anticorruption rhetoric and policies.

The Human Rights Responsibilities of the World Bank

This article proposes a model for understanding the appropriate role of intergovernmental organizations in the promotion of human rights, using the World Bank as an example. Most critiques of the Bank’s record on human rights fail because they implicitly treat the institution as a pseudo-governmental agency, with the authority to choose among competing social goals. It is more accurate and instructive to see it as similar to a large corporation, with clear but limited responsibilities to society. As such it is obligated to consider human rights only when they are directly impacted by projects. The article then examines the Bank’s human rights policies. Both in its direct policies and its emphasis on ‘governance’ reform, the institution is acting as we would expect from a corporation in the same situation. Its failures to live up to even its stated guidelines reinforce the need to understand its organizational nature.

SHIRLEY V. SCOTT, INTERNATIONAL LAW IN WORLD POLITICS: AN INTRODUCTION (BOULDER, COLO.: LYNNE RIENNER PUBLISHERS, 2004)

∗ Shirley V. Scott's recent work, International Law in World Politics: An Introduction 1 , presents the reader with a structured and balanced treatment of the symbiosis between international law and politics, as well as a theoretical and practical survey of international law's fundamental principles and major disciplines. Scott, who is a senior lecturer in international relations at the University of New South Wales, organizes each chapter as part of an overarching and cohesive whole. The outline begins by building a solid basis in international law through a discussion of its main sources and actors, and through an analysis of the system's logical composition. After establishing a foundation, Scott then moves on to examine the creation of legal arguments and multilateral treaty regimes. This provides a segue to the remaining chapters of the piece, which effort to give the reader insight into the specific international legal fields of arms control, international environmental law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law. The result is a well constructed introductory text to what can be, at times, a cumbersome and unwieldy subject. Scott begins her work by laying down some of the basic building blocks of international law, briefly addressing how it is most often forged, in terms of treaty and custom, while distinguishing it from the often legislative and judicially driven systems of domestic law. In setting up a background to the international legal framework, Scott focuses on establishing international law as an autonomous entity but, at the same time, as an integral and inseparable part of the global political system. The text then moves to discuss the primary actors that fuel the creation and continued existence of international law. The reader is presented with the historical background leading to the creation and recognition of the modern state. Described as the most important actors in both international law and world politics, states are also analyzed within terms of sovereignty and with respect to jurisdiction. The work then delves into the role of Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs). Because of its overwhelming importance, a discussion of the United Nations and a subsequent analysis of its principal organs and specialized agencies serves as the major focus in the text's discourse on this topic. Apart the Security Council and General Assembly, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), in particular, is given a sizeable amount of attention. The ICJ's role of issuing decisions, advisory opinions and creating and clarifying international law are presented in depth. Public interest NGOs and the influence they can exude on the international legal system usher in the discourse on

Executive Heads and the Role of Intergovernmental Organizations: Expansionist Leadership in the United Nations and the European Union

Despite considerable advances in methods to examine leaders’ personal characteristics using at–a–distance assessment, few studies have applied such techniques outside of the national level. This study reveals that such approaches can provide analytical leverage for examining executive heads of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). The personal characteristics of six United Nations Secretaries–General and four European Union Commission Presidents were measured via content analysis of their responses to questions. Separately, their behavior in office was measured via historical accounts and analyses. In general, executive heads with higher expansionist leadership style scores displayed a greater willingness to try to enhance the status of their organizations.

The role of intergovernmental organizations in coastal zone management

The near shore shallow margins of the oceans are where most conflicts take place amongst marine activities, where anthropogenic impacts are most concentrated, where development is most sensitive and where constituencies are most vocal. Almost exclusively these areas are within the extended economic zone of coastal states and therefore under national jurisdiction. Why therefore would national governments wish to put coastal zone matters on the international negotiating table and what is the role, if one exists, of intergovernmental organizations? In fact, there are many valid reasons for global cooperation amongst governments, ranging from the obvious benefits of mutual sharing of data and knowledge to the need to address problems of a ubiquitous and global nature. The role of the major UN Agencies is explored. Intergovernmental events having particular relevance to coastal issues are discussed.