International Organisations - Course Notes Essay

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WEEK 2 - Archer 2001 - International Organisations

PG. 6
Three separate conceptions of international organisations as an:

1) Instrument: with which states pursue their own interests as best they can and in which political processes primarily reflect the interests of the most powerful member states. Instruments for policy outcome. To achieve their foreign policy.
They choose to whether to act unilateral or through the use of the multilateral tool.

2) Arena: where IOs resemble a playing field more than a tool of state policy. In this sense IOs are permanent institutions of conference diplomacy in which states may exchange information, condemn or justify certain actions and coordinate their national political strategies.

3) Actor: based on the premise that states have either pooled or delegated their sovereignty so that international organisations themselves embody the characteristics of a corporate actor. Decisions are made in or through international organisations by a collectivity of states, and the crucial point here is that without the relevant organisations decisions would not have been made in the same way.

ie: UN Security General can be seen the actor of UN.

Two types of International Institutions:
"Characterised by behavioural patterns based on international norms and, which prescribe behavioural roles in recurring situations that lead to a convergence of reciprocal expectations.” Pg. 6

- International Regimes Always relate to specific issue areas such, ie: protection of the ozone layer) Characterised by basic principles, norms, rules and decision-making procedures around which behavioural expectations converge.

- International Organisations - can transcend the boundaries of issue areas (transcends the boundaries of national issues.) - can function like actors (unlike regimes) - have actor like qualities.

“Both types are international (social) institutions characterised by behavioural patterns based on international norms and, which prescribe behavioural roles in recurring situations that lead to a convergence of reciprocal expectations.” Pg. 6

Types of International Institutions (Table 1.1)

* International Institutions * International Organisations

* International Governmental Organisations (IGO) * International Non-Governmental Organisations (INGO) see pg. 8 & 9

* (Transnational) Umbrella Organisations * Transnational Organisations

* International Regimes

Insert Figure 1.1 (pg. 11)

Insert Table 1.2 (pg.12)

Supranational organisations are based on a more hierarchical mode of coordination through centralised decision-making procedures.

WEEK 2 - Rittberger & Zangl 2006 - International Organisation - Polity, Politics and Policies

World System
- Numerous more or less autonomous actors interacting in patterned ways to influence one another.
- Their independant decisions and policies serve as stimuli for one another and induce or constrain the