Institutions, Power and Interdependence

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International Organizations
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Actors on the global stage

• States
• IGOs
• UN system
• Regional (EU, OAS, NATO, ASEAN)
• NGOs (Greenpeace, Amnesty Intl)
• TNCs (IBM, Sony, Citicorp)

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IOs defined

• Intergovernmental Organizations IOs whose
  members are states, often the locus of diplomacy
• Nongovernmental Organizations (NGO)
  transnational organizations of private citizens
  they include professional associations,
  foundations, and internationally-active groups in
  different states joined together to work towards
  common interests

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International institutions

• Number of international organizations 300
  (IGO) 6,250 (NGO)
• Membership
• IMF 184
• WTO 146
• IMF resources
• Assets 339 billion
• Loans outstanding 188 billion

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Continent-Wide IGOs
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Post-Empire IGOs
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Regional IGOs
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WTO
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Diplomacy

• Archie Bunker Getting someone to do something
  they don't wanna by promising to do something you
  ain't got no intention of doing
• A more formal definition The total process by
  which states carry on political relations with
  each other settling conflicts among nations by
  peaceful means
• Includes bilateral and multilateral negotiating
  techniques

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Early Diplomacy

• Modern diplomacy's origins may be traced in the
  states of Northern Italy in the late Middle Ages,
  with the first permanent embassies being
  established in the thirteenth century. Slowly
  this practice spread to the rest of Europe. A
  feature necessary for diplomacy is the existence
  of a number of states of somewhat equal power. In
  Asia and the Middle East, China and the Ottoman
  Empire were reluctant to practice bilateral
  diplomacy as they viewed themselves to be
  unquestionably superior to all their neighbors.
  The Ottomans, for instance, would not send
  missions to other states, expecting
  representatives to come to Constantinople. It
  would not be until the nineteenth century that
  the Empire established permanent embassies in
  other capitals.

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• The practice was later adopted by the great
  European powers. Spain was the first power to
  send a permanent representative it appointed an
  ambassador to the Court of England in 1487. By
  the late 16th century, permanent missions became
  customary. The Holy Roman Emperor, however, did
  not regularly send permanent legates, as they
  could not represent the interests of all the
  German princes (who were in theory subordinate to
  the Emperor, but in practice independent).

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Modern Diplomacy

• During this period the rules of modern diplomacy
  were developed. The top rank of representatives
  was an ambassador. At that time an ambassador was
  a nobleman, the rank of the noble assigned
  varying with the prestige of the country he was
  delegated to. Strict standards developed for
  ambassadors, requiring they have large
  residences, host lavish parties, and play an
  important role in the court life of their host
  nation. In Rome, the most prized posting for a
  Catholic ambassador, the French and Spanish
  representatives would have a retinue of up to a
  hundred. Even in smaller posting ambassadors were
  very expensive. Smaller states would send and
  receive envoys, who were a rung below ambassador.
  Somewhere between the two was the position of
  minister plenipotentiary.

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United Nations (UN)

• On April 25, 1945, the United Nations Conference
  on International Organizations began in San
  Francisco. In addition to the Governments, a
  number of non-government organizations, including
  Lions Clubs International were invited to assist
  in the drafting of the charter.

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UN Charter

• The 1945 UN Charter envisaged a system of
  regulation that would ensure "the least diversion
  for armaments of the world's human and economic
  resources." The advent of nuclear weapons came
  only weeks after the signing of the Charter and
  provided immediate impetus to concepts of arms
  limitation and disarmament. In fact, the first
  resolution of the first meeting of the UN General
  Assembly (January 24, 1946) was entitled "The
  Establishment of a Commission to Deal with the
  Problems Raised by the Discovery of Atomic
  Energy" and called upon the commission to make
  specific proposals for "the elimination from
  national armaments of atomic weapons and of all
  other major weapons adaptable to mass
  destruction."

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Human Rights

• The pursuit of human rights was one of the
  central reasons for creating the United Nations.
  World War II atrocities and genocide led to a
  ready consensus that the new organization must
  work to prevent any similar tragedies in the
  future. An early objective was creating a legal
  framework for considering and acting on
  complaints about human rights violations.

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UN System

• General Assembly
• Security Council
• ECOSOC - Economic and Social Council
• ILO - International Labour Organization
• FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization
• UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific
  and Cultural Organization
• WHO - World Health Organization
• World Bank / IBRD - International Bank for
  Reconstruction and Development
• IMF - International Monetary Fund
• ICAO - International Civil Aviation Organization
• ITU - International Telecommunication Union
• WIPO - World Intellectual Property Organization
• IRO - International Refugee Organization(ceased
  to exist in 1952)

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Realist critique

• Crude version Institutions are irrelevant
• A perspective only Americans could seriously
  entertain
• World Trade Organization
• International Monetary Fund
• European Union

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Theoretical significance of the EU
Challenge to realism

• Anarchy is not immutable
• Erosion of sovereignty
• Functionalist transformation of interests
  (spillover/spillback)

But the history of EEC, EC, EU is uneven
- Liberals celebrate periodic successes

• - Realists gloat over setbacks

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Brief chronology

• 1950 Schuman Plan, ECSC
• 1954 EDC fails (August) Geneva Treaty ends
  French Indochina War (July)
• 1957 Treaty of Rome (France, FRG, Italy,
  Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)
• 1963-68 De Gaulle vetoes UK membership
• 1965-66 De Gaulles empty chair tactic (French
  walkout, demanding national veto)
• Luxembourg compromise on unanimity voting
  Qualified Majority Voting less than unanimity
  required
• 1973 UK, Denmark, Ireland enter

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Qualified Majority Voting

• the proposal must be supported by 232 out of the
  total of 321 votes (72.27)
• the proposal must be backed by a majority of
  member states
• the countries supporting the proposal must
  represent at least 62 of the total EU population.

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Brief chronology

• 1979-84 Thatcher forces budget renegotiations
• 1981 Greece joins
• 1986 Spain and Portugal join
• 1986 Single European Act increased
  harmonization
• 1991 Maastricht Treaty on EU
• Four Pillars social policy, EMU, justice,
  common defense policy
• UK opts out of social policy, retains an option
  for EMU

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Brief chronology

• 1992 UK leaves EMS (market pressure)
• 1990s Association agreements with Eastern
  Europe
• 1995 Finland, Austria, Sweden join
• 1999 Economic and Monetary Union (EMU)
• 2004 Ten countries join EU

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Causes Spill-overs
Increase trade
Lower barriers
Create new firms
Mobilize new lobbies
Ernst Haas
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More than an International Organization

• Budgetary autonomy (direct taxation)
• 3 of government spending in Europe
• Direct effect of regulations, directives, ECJ
  rulings
• Internal affairs
• CAP
• Structural funds
• Social policy
• EMU

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Realist critique

• Sophisticated version Institutions advantage
  powerful countries (Krasner 1992)
• World Trade Organization
• International Monetary Fund
• European Union

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GATT, WTO

• Cons for weak countries
• Major powers set the agenda
• Agricultural subsidies (360B by OECD countries)
• Trade barriers for infant industries
• Pros for weak countries
• Quasi-legal system, DRPs
• But, U.S. exerts outside options
• Bilateral threats
• Regional trade groups NAFTA, APEC

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Before GATT

• Discriminatory trade agreements advantaged
  stronger players
• Optimal tariffs are possible only for large
  countries
• Large economies fare better in trade wars
• Strategic trade subsidies can wipe out infant
  industries

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International Monetary Fund

• Criticisms
• Conditionality
• Cuts social services wages
• Destabilizes new democracies
• Benefits foreign investors
• Involvement in debt negotiations
• Benefits foreign lenders
• Facilitates excessive lending to unconstitutional
  governments
• Weighted voting

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IMF Voting

• Other G-10 is Italy, Canada, Belgium,
  Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland

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International Monetary Fund

• Benefits
• IMF can serve as a self-commitment device
• Inflation, exchange rates, capital flight
• Foreign investment
• Emergency financing as insurance against
  financial crises
• But, its not clear the IMF can really reassure
  capital markets

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Conclusions

• International institutions are key features of
  the international system
• Define strategies options for weak powers
• Represent power resources for strong powers
• Distributional consequences of institutions are
  an open empirical question
• Research agenda under what conditions do
  powerful countries cede advantages in order to
  make joint gains?