Nonstate Actors

1
Nonstate Actors

• IGOs (intergovernmental organizations) members
  are states have authority from state governments
  to make decisions regarding particular problems.
• international
• regional
• NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) members are
  private individuals or groups who focus on
  specific aspects of the global agenda.
• Movements
• MNCs
• Issue-advocacy groups

2
Figure 6.1
3
Table 6.1
4
The United Nations

• founded in 1945 as a successor to the League of
  Nations
• According to Article 1 of the UN Charter, its
  objectives are
• maintain international peace and security
• Develop friendly relations among nations based on
  respect for the principle of equal rights and
  self-determination of peoples
• Achieve international cooperation in solving
  international problems of economic, social,
  cultural or humanitarian character and in
  promoting and encouraging respect for human
  rights and for fundamental freedoms for all
• Function as a center for harmonizing the actions
  of nations in the attainment of these common ends

5
Figure 6.2
6
United Nations Structure

• General Assembly
• Security Council
• Economic and Social Council
• Trusteeship Council
• International Court of Justice
• Secretariat

• General Assembly dominated by the Global South
• controversy over size and nature of UN budget
• controversy over dues amounts
• controversy over inefficiency of UN bureaucracies

7
World Trade Organization
International Monetary Fund
World Bank

• successor to GATT
• promotes stable international economic order and
  smooth international trade
• formal decision-making powers over trade disputes
• decreases state sovereignty
• dominated by major powers

• created at 1944 Bretton Woods conference
• private and governmental loans to developing
  countries
• upholds international economic system
• promotes economic/political development

• Created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference
• stabilizes international monetary exchange rates
• lender of last resort
• dominated by wealthier states weighted voting
• tension with Global South

8
The European Union

• began with European Coal and Steel Community in
  1951
• single economy with a common currency
• most Western European states eventually most
  Eastern European states also
• contrast with pre-EU Europe war and economic
  competition

• Council of Ministers
• final authority over decisions
• European Commission
• propose laws, execute Council decisions
• European Parliament
• elected in member states, increasing power
• Court of Justice
• interprets EU law

9
Other Regional IGOs

• NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation
• ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• CARICOM Caribbean Community and Common Market
• CAEU Council of Arab Economic Unity
• OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference
• CARICOM Caribbean Community
• ECOWAS Economic community of West African States
  
• LAIA Latin American Integration Association
• SAARC South Asian Association for Regional
  Cooperation
• APEC Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum
• SADC Southern African Development Community

10
Nongovernmental Organizations

• private interest groups
• allow individuals to participate in global
  affairs
• 30,000 total
• often work with IGOs such as the UN
• challenge state sovereignty
• Issue-advocacy groups use technical expertise,
  organizational flexibility, grassroots
  connections to create international regimes that
  establish complex networks
• Examples include Greenpeace Amnesty
  International

11
Ethnopolitical Movements
Religious Movements

• religion as a source of identity
• actions can contradict a religions high ideals
• militant religious political movements
• irredentism
• secession
• incite migration
• diaspora communities
• potential terrorism

• nonstate nations
• ethnopolitical groups common nationality,
  language, cultural tradition, kinship ties
• form cultural domains that can cross national
  borders
• Some minorities, such as the Kurds in Turkey,
  Iraq, and Iran, spill across several countries.

12
Map 6.2
13
Multinational Corporations

• primary agents of globalization of production
• strategic corporate alliances
• virtual corporations
• foreign direct investment purchase of stock,
  property, or assets in another country
• difficult for states to control
• transnational banks

14
Discussion

• In what ways do IGOs and NGOs affect the
  structure of the international system?
• How do IGOs and NGOs reduce state sovereignty?
• In what ways and in which issue areas could NGOs
  conceivably be more effective than IGOs?
• How might the UN become a more powerful and more
  effective institution?
• In what ways do the WTO, World Bank, and IMF
  affect the Global South?
• Could the EU replace the United States as the
  worlds hegemon?