황유림
202000075
IOTP Fall 2022
Why do we need international organizations?
In an anarchic world where there is no world government and no one country can dictate what the rest of the world
should do, international organizations serve as a platform for countries to come together and combine their forces in
pursuit of a better world and to seek solutions to problems. This can be achieved through the establishment of certain
norms and mutual standards. The idea of diplomacy first began from the Westphalia Treaty, which gave birth to the
concept of a state, and nations were sovereign for the first time. This introduced the possibility of using diplomacy to
solve conflicts, instead of using war, the previous default (Baylis ’20.)
Years after Westphalia, today we live in a world filled with numerous instabilities, and these challenges span over a
combination of areas such as economic, environmental, geopolitical, and societal issues. The next 10 years are
threatened by risks such as rising sea levels, social cohesion erosion, debt crises and involuntary migration (World
Economic Forum and National Intelligence Council ‘22.) These challenges affect mankind on a global scale and are
not specific to just selected nations. Too many problems go beyond the capacities of individual states and can only be
solved through the cooperation of multiple countries.
In other words, it would be unrealistic and impossible to expect a single state to solve these problems for everyone
else in the world. It is also unlikely that a nation would be willing to take on that task alone because of the principle of
the free rider (Kindleberger ‘81.) Leaders often pay more than what would be an equal share divided among each
state, yet there is no difference between the benefits they receive and the benefits a country contributing less would
receive. This then gives countries little reason to want to generate more of a public good (Weiss ’13.) Kindleberger
also believes that many of the problems we face today are such because no one is willing to act as the next leader in
the world after the United States. Countries led by realist leaders would be even more opposed to such an idea as they
are motivated by relative gains (Barkin ‘06.) Countries that are weaker in power are not as vested in helping to form
cohesion in the global community as they are focused on survival, which is a more urgent concern. They are unlikely
to, on their own effort, actively seek solutions to address the world’s concerns. With international organizations
however, it makes it more realistic and viable for even the small countries to be part of the joint pursuit in a public
good, for example, control over climate change. The presence of the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change, headed by the UN, creates a forum for smaller countries to devise and submit their own Nationally
Determined Contributions. Despite certain world leaders’ positions on how countries should take care of and fend for
themselves on their own (Trump ’20), Keohane points out that without international institutions, it would be difficult
for countries to engage in mutually beneficial transactions with one another because of uncertainty. Countries would
not feel uneasy that they are the only ones working hard, since there would be a clear framework that gives us
expectations of how other actors are getting things done. In the context of the UNFCCC, when multiple countries have
NDCs and achieve those NDCs, it helps the world to better mitigate the problem of climate change and all countries
would stand to gain from this mutually advantageous deal, as they would all reap the benefit of a greener Earth. We
have seen successes on how international organizations can be effective. The work of Interpol, which facilitates
worldwide police cooperation, has contributed to a decline in terrorism cases, and much progress has been achieved.
Given the fact that global interaction is amplified today, our boundaries between countries are also much more
intertwined than they were before (Karns and Mingst ‘15.) Global governance through international organization is
then necessary because of how much international interaction is happening, and we need certain systems to be put in
place so we can maintain worldly order. There are evidently, forces in the world that threaten global governance and
hint at the possibility of the world reverting into its old state where powerful countries can abuse power and trample
over small countries. The Russian invasion on Ukraine is one example. International organizations are thus needed in
the global community to act as “rule-makers”, to set the order, reduce uncertainty and create predictability. Without
them, our world will be in much more chaos and people would have to live in constant fear about the possibility of
getting attacked and worry about survival daily.