International organization

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For the political science journal, see International Organization.
"IGO" redirects here. For other uses, see igo.

An international organisation, or more formally intergovernmental organisation (IGO), is an organization, such as the European Community or World Trade Organization, with sovereign states or other IGOs as members.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are private organizations that can also be international in scope. Generally and correctly used, however, the term "international organization" is reserved for intergovernmental organizations only. It is in this sense that the term is used in the remainder of this article.

Contents

  • 1 Legal nature
  • 2 Membership and function
  • 3 Purpose of International organizations
  • 4 Examples of organizations
    • 4.1 Global organizations
    • 4.2 Regional organizations
    • 4.3 Organizations with various membership criteria
    • 4.4 Financial international organizations
  • 5 See also

[edit] Legal nature

Legally speaking, an international organisation must be established by a treaty (constituent instrument) providing it with legal recognition. International organizations so established are subjects of international law, capable of entering into agreements among themselves or with states. Thus international organizations in a legal sense are distinguished from mere groupings of states, such as the G-8 and the G-77, neither of which have been founded by treaty, though in non-legal contexts these are sometimes referred to as international organizations as well.

International organisations must also be distinguished from treaties; while all international organisations are founded on a treaty, many treaties (e.g., the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or, in the 1947-1995 period, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)) do not establish an international organisation and rely purely on the parties for their administration.

[edit] Membership and function

International organisations differ in function, membership and membership criteria. Membership of some organisations (global organizations) is open to all the nations of the world. This category includes the United Nations and its specialized agencies and the World Trade Organization. Other organizations are only open to members from a particular region or continent of the world, like European Union, African Union, ASEAN and so on.

Finally, some organizations base their membership on other criteria: cultural or historical links (the Commonwealth of Nations, La Francophonie, the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union), level of economic development or type of economy (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC), or religion (Organization of the Islamic Conference).

In the nineteenth century, France was the fons et origo of many international organizations: This means that much of the driving force to form such bodies (such as those which maintain the Système international d'unités (metric system)) came from the French, and that their headquarters is in France, often in Paris. Under the Third Republic, the International Exposition of 1878 in that city held a great number of meetings of such international organizations - as opposed to the preceding regimes. The motivation was that to keep France a republic and not slip back into either a monarchist or Bonapartist regime, the republicans would underscore their inheritance of the crusading nature of the French Revolution against feudal cultural remnants within France, which had been generalized to the rest of feudal Europe, eventually to the world. Some conclude from this example that internationalism often has national origins, at the difference of globalism.

The Union of International Associations provides information on international organizations.

[edit] Purpose of International organizations

International Organizations exist to increase international relations, promote education, health care, economic development, environmental protection, human rights, and conflict resolution throughout a region.

[edit] Examples of organizations

[edit] Global organizations

[edit] Regional organizations

Organizations grouping almost all the countries in their respective continents. Note that Russia is member of both the Council of Europe (COE) and the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), and Cuba is currently a suspended member of the Organization of American States (OAS)
Several smaller regional organizations with non-overlapping memberships.
Several non-overlapping large alliances. Softer colors indicate observer/associate or candidate countries.

Europe:

Asia:

Eurasia:

Africa:

Western Hemisphere:

Trans-atlantic:

Arctic Ocean:

Indian Ocean:

Pacific:

[edit] Organizations with various membership criteria

International organizations that largely represent the independent states formed after the breakup of an empire. La Francophonie has overlapping membership with all three of the other organizations shown in the map.

[edit] Financial international organizations