1 Jaworski Zachary Jaworski Institutions of Global Governance November 24, 2007 Professor Edwards
IGO's: Membership vs. effectiveness The superseding purpose of this report is to determine whether or not the amount of members in any given Intergovernmental Organization will in turn have an effect on its efficiency and ability to operate. In order to answer this question, one must first analyze the stature of both global and regional IGO's. A global IGO, such as the United Nations, is an organization that includes a wide array of members, and whose scope covers any number of issues including economy, society and politics. A regional IGO, such as the European Union (EU) or the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will often cover similar issues; however the membership tends to be much more limited to include only a specific number of states. After one completely interprets the purpose and objectives set forth by both global and regional IGO's, it can be understood that the argument of membership versus effectiveness is irrelevant. Instead, it can be concluded that the efficiency and effectiveness of IGO's can only be determined in a case by case situation. Having been said, the overall stature of an IGO can only be determined on an individual basis, and by understanding the specific goals and agenda's set by each separate IGO. The United Nations is an IGO whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in International law, security, economic development, social progress, and human rights
Jaworski 2 issues. The UN was preceded by the League of Nations and formed in 1945 in the hopes that it could intervene in conflicts between nations, thereby avoiding possible wars (98). The UN is made up of several large bodies such as the Security Council, General Assembly, International Court of Justice, Economic and Social Council, Trusteeship Council, and the Secretariat. (102) The UN currently consists of 192 states, which encompasses most independent states in the world. Having been said, the UN is an example of a global IGO with an extensive membership. Therefore the question being addressed is whether or not their large-scale membership has an effect on the UN's ability to function in a way that is both efficient and beneficial to the International Community. When referring to the UN, it is incredibly difficult to measure its effectiveness because of its many bodies. For example, the effectiveness of the UN in the past several years has been brought to question because of the Security Council, and the ability of the five permanent members to veto certain issues, meaning that an issue could be voted on nearly unanimously, but if a veto is declared by just one permanent member, then the issue is dropped. Also, with the existence of such a large membership, a tradeoff does exist within the general assembly, which gives every state an equal say on issues, regardless of their economic, political or military power. Because of this, states give up their own autonomy and ability to fully represent their own agenda within the UN. It is important to recognize that because of its size, the UN may be viewed as widely ineffective on several issues. This is because states are less likely to agree on issues that do not represent their own agenda. That being said, cooperation is far more likely when referring to economic issues. This is because issues involving economy seem to crossover with the scope of many countries. For example, when trade may become more
Jaworski 3 efficient for a wide array of countries, treaties and agreements are made more efficiently. Whereas issues involving singular political agenda's (such as the United States in Iraq) are less likely to promote cooperation, as several states do not wish to get caught up in political affairs that do not involve them. This being said, it is apparent that cooperation is most common when the scope of the issue is shared by a majority of the countries. Because of this, a large membership is more likely to inhibit cooperation when referring to political aims. Because the UN is so inclusive, issues regarding politics and state affairs are unlikely to yield cooperation. However, this cannot lead to a general assumption that cooperation is impossible, only that it varies depending on the issue, and the specific agenda's of individual states. It is also important to recognize that the size of an IGO's membership does not clearly represent its ability to promote cooperation. This will be seen in the analysis of the European Union, a smaller regional IGO, whom regardless of member states, still face the same tribulations when trying to come to unanimous agreements.
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic community comprised of twenty-seven member states. The EU traces its origins from the European Economic Community (EEC) which was formed in 1957 at the Treaty of Rome (160). Since its foundation, the EU has grown significantly by accession of new member states and by adding new policy areas to its agenda. The 1993 Maastricht Treaty established the legal framework which they are currently guided by (169). Initially, the EU primarily was a means by which states would unite under common standards in order to stimulate an open economy that would further promote regional trade. This is seen by the establishment of
Jaworski 4 the creations of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) in 1951, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 1962, and the completion of the Customs Union in 1968. It was not until 1970 that the EU launched the European Political Cooperation which called for the coordination of foreign policies.(161) This was the first step the Union had taken that was not in regards to economy. This is important to note because we see that the IGO was established primarily to fulfill common economic procedures wanted by all involved states. The EU, with the launch of their common economic and monetary union, has proved a greatly successful financial power. However, trying to become one unified political unit has proved to be far more difficult. This can be seen with their inability to come together under one constitution. A treaty establishing a constitution for the EU was signed in Rome in 2004; however it never completed ratification because it was rejected by both the French and the Dutch. This is important, because it further shows that the likelihood of cooperation in IGO's is made more likely when the issue is covered in all member state's scope, issues such as economy. However, when issues begin to threaten the goals and aims of individual states, cooperation is likely to be halted. This is because states are less likely to cooperate under conditions where their own sovereignty and autonomy may be at risk, which is the reason a constitution has yet to be agreed upon. This being said, we must address once again the issue of membership versus effectiveness. As noted previously, the EU is currently comprised of twenty-seven member states. Although this is a significantly lesser amount of members then that of the United Nations, it faces the same degradation of cooperation in result of a lack of common interests when referring to their differing political agendas. This is thus
Jaworski 5 reinstating that the amount of members is ultimately irrelevant; and that the reason for a lack of cooperation stems merely from the differing scopes of individual countries.
These same trends of cooperation by means of similar economic goals are seen when analyzing the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC was created in 1981 in response to regional threats such as the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the war between Iran and Iraq (208). The council's mandate involves cooperation in economies, finance, trade, customs, and foreign investments among other economically stimulating platforms. Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are the six states that make up the GCC (207). While the GCC was unable to act as a political unit in response to the Iran-Iraq war, they have proved to be a very beneficial economic community, which depend on their massive quantities of Oil to remain prominent actors on the world stage. It is important to note these states' abilities to work prosperously together in order to obtain common economic goals. Ideally, the stature of the GCC would prove that IGO's with smaller membership in turn have a more beneficial outcome. However, it is imperative that one understands that these six states make up some of the most homogeneous in the entire world, meaning that they share common political and cultural identities. Also, the IGO was created on the basis of enhancing regional economies above all things. Because of these two factors, we can again see that the amount of states in any given IGO has no barring on the outcome of cooperation or effectiveness. Instead, it is based once again on common goals and aspirations shared by the members.
Jaworski 6 After analysis of three Intergovernmental Organizations, it is important for us to return once again to the topic at hand. Many speculate that a tradeoff exists in international organizations between membership and effectiveness. This implies that states can create organizations in which levels of cooperation are very high, but have limited or smaller membership. This theory also entails that organizations with larger membership will in turn have a negative effect on the likelihood of cooperation. However, as we have seen, this trend only appears to exist if states have differing agenda's, most commonly in reference to political issues. However, we have also realized that states, regardless of how many, are more likely to cooperate when their scopes interweave, which is commonly seen when economic issues are at hand. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that membership will ultimately have a very small effect on the likelihood of cooperation. Instead, cooperation and effectiveness are determined most accurately by the scope of the issue, and whether or not the issue exists in the scope of all involved states. This means that states with common interests and aspirations, regardless of how many states exist in any given IGO, are more likely to cooperate than states with differing agendas.