International Organizations
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Governance is as Old as Civilizations
 The rules and norms functioned long before the 19th century
 Chinese and Indian Civilizations tried to manage and eliminate
conflict
 The Greeks established protective alliances among city-states that
were sovereign
 The medieval Europe thought that political alliances were needed
against the violators of agreed norms
 Italy (14-15 century) of Renaissance period had agglomerated small
cities into political units of Kingdom of Naples, Venice, Florence, etc.
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
The Rise of the State System
Holy Roman Empire-1000AD Thirty Years War – 1618-1648AD
The war was fought primarily (though not exclusively) in Germany
and at various points involved most of the countries of Europe.
• a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics
• the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
The Peace of Westphalia: The New Order of Europe
The Peace of Westphalia resulted from the first modern
diplomatic congress and initiated a new order in central
Europe based on the concept of state sovereignty with
Territorial Integrity, secular authority and equal
participation in international system.
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Westphalians
against
Grotians
In defining the modern state system
•States are sovereign
•Their territorial integrity
is intact
•The rule of law
•The states are secular or
laic
•There is no supreme
arbiter among states
• States do not have complete
freedom to do whatever they
wish
• State sovereignty is
contested constantly
•States are vulnerable to the
demands posed by the forces
that decentralize and
globalize
International trade, migration, democratization and technological
innovation transformed the 19th century reality giving rise to IOs.
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Governance Innovations: 19th century
Increased trade
Concept of Europe: Establish
in 1815, based on multilateral
meetings of superpowers of
Europe, met over 30 times
before WWI
The Hague System:
Generalized conferences, where
all states where invited to solve
problems, such as piece keeping
in a time of piece. This brought
about the mechanism of
arbitration
The WWI stood as a proof of the
volatility and vulnerability of the
emerging multilateralism
4/13/2015
G7 countries
Canada
France
Germany
Italy
Japan
United
Kingdom
United States
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Public International Unions:
The Industrial Revolution posed
challenges that was not
confined to one state, such as
health hazards, shipment of
mail, usage of telegraph. This
gave rise to UPU, ITU. The
Labor movement brought about
ICC, Interpol
Growing state
interaction
Multilateralism: 20th century
The League of Nations of Woodrow Wilson
1. Was to prevent War,
2. Respect the territorial integrity and political
independence of states
3. Settle disputes or enforce them on violators
The Treaty of
Versailles
was one of the
peace treaties at
the end of World
War I. It ended the
state of war
between Germany
and the Allied
Powers.
4/13/2015
4. It had a Council, Assembly and Secretariat
5. Plus Permanent Court of International Justice
6. And International Labor Organization
7. The League succeeded when states wanted action
and failed when the great powers did not want to
follow its principles
8. It also failed to address the great depression of the
1930s
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Functionalism and Specialized Organizations
The founders of the UN envisaged that functional agencies would play
key roles in activities aimed at economic and social advancement
Health
WHO
Science
UNESCO
Education
UNICEF/UNESCO
Culture Economics Food
UNESCO
WB/IMF FAO/WFP
Other UN related functional organizations: ILO, UNHCR, ITU, WMO,
UPU, IAEA, IMO
Other functional organization: OPEC
Regional Functional organization: OAPEC, ADB, IADB, PAHO, AMF
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Functionalism and Specialized Organizations: Bretton Woods
Market liquidity is a
business, economics
or investment term
that refers to an
asset's ability to be
easily converted
through an act of
buying or selling
without causing a
significant movement
in the price and with
minimum loss of
value.
 The Depression of 1930s collapsed the





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economies
Countries raised barriers to trade and used
“beggar thy neighbor” policies
Recovery and rebuilding of Europe after
WWII: Marshal Plan
US promoted a vision of open international
economy
Keynes proposed a global central bank to
deal with liquidity problems
United States vs. Europe in setting
liberalized trade standards, resulting in
GATT later to become the WTO
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Trends in Functional Organizations
Technical
GATT
High
IAEA
IMF
ITU
WHO
Functional
Low
4/13/2015
Developmental
UN
Conference on
Trade and
Development
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
Politically
contending
area
ILO
Global Conferences
 League of Nations convened global conferences on
economic affairs and disarmament
 Focus on salient issues of the day
 One type of GC is to negotiate a treaty among states, i.
e. a 9 year long protracted negotiation among the
states that brought about the ratification of the Law of
the Sea Convention
 Another one is to have series of meetings with various
state and non state actors around a possible agenda, i.
e. Agenda 21 or CEDAW following Beijing summit in
1995
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
International Courts of Adjudication and Dispute Settlement

The International Criminal Court is a
permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals
for genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes.

The International Court of Justice is the
primary judicial organ of the United Nations.
It is based in the Peace Palace in The Hague,
Netherlands. Its main functions are to settle
legal disputes submitted to it by member
states and to give advisory opinions on legal
questions submitted to it by duly authorized
international organs, agencies, and the UN
General Assembly.

The Court of Justice of the European
Communities, usually called the European
Court of Justice (ECJ), is the highest court of
the European Union (EU). It has the ultimate
say on matters of EU law in order to ensure its
equal application across all EU member states.
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com
 The resolution of disputes under
international commercial contracts is
widely conducted under the auspices of
several major international institutions
and rule making bodies. The most
significant are:
 International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC),
 International Centre for Dispute
Resolution (ICDR),
 the international branch of the
American Arbitration Association),
 London Court of International
Arbitration (LCIA),
 Singapore International Arbitration
Centre (SIAC).
Where are the challenges of Multilateralism?
4/13/2015
Nvard V. Manasian
manasian@arminco.com