International Organizations

International Organizations

Supranational Political Bodies

• Associations of three or more states created for mutual benefit and to achieve shared objectives.
• Supranational organizations – come into being when countries give up a portion of their sovereignty (willingly) in order to gain the advantages of having a closer relationship with their neighboring countries, politically, economically or culturally.

Goals of International Organizations

• Political & Military
• United Nations
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
• Warsaw Pact
• Organization of American States (OAS)
• African Union (AU)

Goals of International Organizations

• Economic
• European Union (EU)
• Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) – communist countries
• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Political & Military Organizations

United Nations

• 1945 – original 49 members
• 2007 – 192 members

• United Nations

• The United Nations System is based on five active principal organizations:
• UN General Assembly
• UN Security Council
• UN Economic and Social Council
• UN Secretariat
• International Court of Justice

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations

• Non-member States
• Taiwan (China)
• Vatican City
• Western Sahara (territory of Morocco)
• Palestinian Territories
• Tibet (China)

• UNDP - United Nations Development Programme
• UNIFEM - United Nations Development Fund for Women
• UNV - United Nations Volunteers
• UNEP - United Nations Environment Programme
• UNFPA - United Nations Fund for Population Activities
• UNHCR - Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• UN-HABITAT - United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT)
• UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund

• Sample United Nations Organizations

Maritime boundaries

• United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS):
• Four zones:
• Territorial sea – 12 nautical miles
• Contiguous zone
• Exclusive Economic zone (EEZ)-200 n.m.
• High Seas or Global Commons

• Map of Canada outlining the 200 mile exclusive economic zone (red line) and the possible limit of the extended continental shelf (white line).

NATO

• After WWII – 16 member nations
• Since fall of communism – some former Warsaw pact countries have joined

Economic Organizations

Trading Blocs

OPEC

• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a large group of countries[1][2] made up of Algeria, Angola, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Ecuador (which rejoined OPEC in November 2007)

• European
• Union

• Began as
• European
• Economic
• Community
• (EEC), 1957.
• Stronger in 1994
• 10 new members
• joined, 2004
• Turkey and Romania want to join but have faced resistance.

NAFTA

• 1993
• Designed to converge wealth between Canada, US, & Mexico
• Increase in wealth for elite, decline in income for Mex. farmers, and job loss for US workers
• Increase in maquiladoras

Group Research

• 1. When did this organization become official? 2. Were there any predecessors to this organization? 3. How many states are members to this organization? 4. List 5 major member states. 5. What is the purpose of this organization? 6. How is this organization structured? 7. How do you join this organization? 8. What are the benefits of this organization? 9 What are the downfalls of this organization? 10. Why would a state want to join this organization?

• EU
• NAFTA
• ASEAN
• WTO
• ADPA
• NATO
• AU OAS
• OPEC
• UNPO

• (African Diamond Producers Association )
• (Unrepresented Nations & Peoples Organization