Introduction Essays (2008 words) - Structure, Globalization

Introduction International organisations are defined simply as an organisation with international membership scope or presence there are two main types, international non-governmental organisations and international governmental organisations also known as IGOs. They have various aims which they aim to achieve and it is in these aims that expectations are drawn. International relations have made it however difficult for some of these expectations to be realised. One scholar wrote that in international relations there are no permanent friends rather there are permanent interests it thus becomes problematic reconciling a nations own interest to the interests of an organisation to which she is a signatory. The realists appear to be right in asserting that a nation will only act if it considers itself to benefit from the action concerned, the idea of international organisations is idealist in nature this is why more often than not these organisations have failed to fulfil the expectations invest ed in them. This paper will thus explore the nature of international organisations in asserting whether indeed they cannot fulfil the many expectations laid in them, the stance taken will be that while there are various expectations that are not realised international organisations cannot be rendered useless as they exist still to serve a purpose which remains essential. International governemental organisations (IGOs) To begin with one of the expectations invested in international organisations is maintaining world peace and settling disputes and these expectations were vested first in the League of Nations and currently in the United Nations and the African union, the League of Nations in its operations since its creation after World War 1 can be said to have been successful in maintaining world peace up to the outbreak of the 2nd world war The expectations invested in the league were to promote international cooperation and to achieve international peace and security. The notion of security envisaged in the convention rested essentially on the notion of disarmament (ART 8) ,pacific settlement and the outlaw of war (ART 11-15) ,a collective guarantee of independence of each member and sanctions. The leagues disarmament programme failed dismally and war itself was not outlawed as such a state resorting to war in violation of its undertaking with regard to pacific settlement was deemed to have a committed an act of war against all other members but the system was flawed it was left to each member to decide whether a breach had occurred or an act of war had been committed so that even the obligation to apply sanctions was left upon each members own discretion. Apart from half-hearted economic sanctions on Italy in 1935 no economic sanctions were ever really applied by the league. When the league failed the united nations was created it carried the same aims as those carried by the League of Nations . Bowe t t 1963: 16 the failure of the league was due not to the inadequacies of the covenant but to the apathy and reluctance of the member states to discharge their obligations Among some of the expectations laid in the United Nations is impartiality and fairness but more often than not the United Nations has been manipulated by the great powers. The general assembly in its day to day operations bears witness to the primacy of politics in the United Nations it would be commonplace to say that the assembly is a forum where states and groups of states seek to attain influence prestige, political advantage or whatever other values maybe at stake Riggs (1958:1). Riggs writes about the problem of the American influence, Goodrich quoted in Riggs wrote that no important action can be undertaken by the United Nations with any reasonable prospect of success in the face of United States opposition. With particular reference to the general assembly Ernest quoted again in Riggs offers impressive evidence of the American leadership in the years 1946-1953 the general assembly adopted over 800 resolutions the united states was defeated in less than 3% and in no case where her permanent interests were concerned. In this instance the realist perspective prevails in this case it can be seen that power politics prevails over the expectations. The veto has also always loomed over the operations of the