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International Political Organisations

International Political Organisations. European Union - History. Early dreams by Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet of a federal Europe 1948 Council of Europe (little more than debating society) created rather than a European Parliament 1951 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) established

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International Political Organisations

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  1. International Political Organisations

  2. European Union - History • Early dreams by Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet of a federal Europe • 1948 Council of Europe (little more than debating society) created rather than a European Parliament • 1951 European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) established • 1952-4 Failed attempt to create European Defence Community • 1957 Treaty of Rome creates European Economic Community and Euratom • 1966 Unanimous voting and veto introduced • 1967 ECSC, Euratom and EEC merged to create European Community (EC)

  3. Enlargement and Integration • 1973 UK, Ireland and Denmark join • 1981 Greece joins • 1986 Spain and Portugal join • 1986 after stagnation in 1970s, Single European Act (SEA) envisaging ‘single market’ by 1993 • 1991 Treaty of European Union (TEU) (Maastricht), effective 1993, creates EU, commitment to political and monetary unions • NB UK opt out from Social Chapter & monetary union • Both SEU and TEU reduce use of veto and increase ‘qualified majority voting’

  4. Further Enlargement & Integration • 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden join • 1999 Euro created • 2002 Euro coins and notes distributed • 2004 Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia join • 2007 Bulgaria and Romania join

  5. EU Institutions • European Commission: executive-bureaucratic arm – 27 (since 2004 one from each member state) commissioners and a president. Proposes legislation and is broadly responsible for implementation • Council of Ministers: decision-making branch, consists of ministers from the member states. Presidency rotates between member states every 6 months • European Council: senior forum – heads of govt, foreign ministers and two commissioners discuss overall direction. Meets periodically

  6. EU Institutions 2 • European Parliament: 785 MEPs who are directly elected every 5 years. Scrutinising assembly, not a legislature. Can dismiss the European Commission and reject the EU budget, but does not execute such far-reaching powers • European Court of Justice: interprets and adjudicates EU law, one judge from each member state; EU law has primacy over national law of member states

  7. What is the EU • Neither a confederation of independent states, nor a federal supranational govt • Qualified majority voting plus binding nature of EU law, mean members have given up degrees of sovereignty • ‘The world’s most advanced experiment in regional integration’ • Principle of subsidiarity and tradition of pragmatism mean ‘multi-level governance • Interconnected subnational, national, intergovernmental and supranational levels, shifting in relation too different issues and policy areas

  8. United Nations • Founded in 1945 at end of WWII in San Francisco to resolve the post-war political order • Members renounce use of force (except in self-defence), commitment to collective security, respect for human rights • Unlike League, it has established itself as world body, but has not perhaps lived up to the ideal of its founders

  9. UN Institutions • General Assembly – all member states, each with a single vote • Important decisions need 2/3 majority • Decisions are recommendations, not enforceable by international law • Tends to be dominated by large number of smaller, developing, states • Security Council – charged with the maintenance of international peace

  10. UN Security Council • 15 members in all • ‘Big Five’ (UK, France, US, Russia and Communist China) are permanent members with veto powers • Other 10 members are elected for two years by the General Assembly • Increased demands for Germany and Japan to have permanent membership; and for a developing country such as Brazil or India to have permanent membership

  11. UN Performance • Generally paralysed by superpower rivalry – US and SU took opposing positions • 1950 intervened in Korea only because SU temporarily withdrew in protest against the exclusion of Communist China • Successes: 1959 ceasefire between India and Pakistan; 1960 peace in Belgian Congo (Zaire); 1962 Dutch and Indonesians in New Guinea • Failures: Hungary 1956; Cuban Missile Crisis 1962; Czechoslovakia 1968; Afghanistan 1979

  12. UN Performance 2 • Minimal influence in Arab-Israeli wars of 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973. • Yet degree of moral authority – UK in Falklands (1982) and US in first Gulf War (1991) cautious to act within UN resolutions • End of Cold War did not result in much improvement • 1994 UN peacemakers ineffective in Rwanda • 1995 UN-backed US intervention in Somalia ineffective • 1990s wars in Yugoslavia, UN ceasefires and sanctions ineffective

  13. Bretton Woods System • WWII allies also concerned with failure of economic co-operation fighting the Depression of the 1930s • 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire they devised new rules and institutions to govern postwar international trading and monetary systems • Three institutions were set up: the International Monetary Fund (IMF); the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (later World Bank)

  14. Collapse and Restructuring of the System • At centre of the Bretton Woods system as originally conceived was a system of fixed exchange rates • 1971 US allowed dollar to float, partly because of economic competition from Germany and Japan, partly because of costs of war in Vietnam • IMF lost principle role • Heralds an era when all three institutions are committed to free trade and free markets • 1974 US abolishes capital controls, as does UK in 1979 • This is strengthened with neo-liberalism of 1980s

  15. IMF • HQ in Washington, original 29 members have grown to 182 • Oversee global rules governing money and maintain currency stability through a system of fixed exchange rates • Since 1971 has embraced neo-liberal economic model and offers assistance only in return for embracing stringent, market-based reforms

  16. World Bank • Since 1980s, its lending has been geared to ‘structural adjustment’, the reorientation of economies to market principles and their role in the global economy • HQ in Washington, owned by members (185) • Began in 1944 as International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a facilitator of post-war reconstruction and development • In 1960 a second institution was established to operate under the World Bank umbrella - International Development Association (IDA)

  17. IDA • IDA aims to reduce poverty by providing interest-free loans and grants for programs that boost economic growth, reduce inequalities and improve people’s living conditions • IBRD serves middle-income countries with capital investment and advisory services • IBRD and IDA share the same staff and headquarters

  18. World Bank cont’d • In its own words, whereas heavy infrastructure investment projects once dominated the Bank's portfolio • Current concerns include ‘social sector lending projects, poverty alleviation, debt relief and good governance’ • Like the IMF, they promote this via Structural Adjustment Policies which countries must follow in order to qualify for new World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and help them make debt repayments on the older debts owed to commercial banks, governments and the World Bank.

  19. Structural Adjustment Programmes • Common features include: export-led growth; privatisation, devalued currencies; lifting of import and export restrictions; balance budgets; removal of price controls and state subsidies • Although devalued currency makes foreign purchase more expensive IMF supports it by providing loans • Devaluation and abolition of subsidies tends to put up prices dramatically • Since increased taxes are frowned on, budgets must be balanced by cutting taxes, which results in cuts in programmes like education, health and social care

  20. World Trade Organisation • It was originally anticipated that the post-war ‘Bretton Woods’ world order would have a 3rd world body to regulate trade, the International Trade Organisation (ITO) • Draft charter was agreed in Havana in 1948, but US failed to ratify it • Meanwhile agreement to phase out quotas and reduce tariffs had been negotiated in Geneva in 1947 • This became General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), 1 Jan 1948 • Originally envisaged as provisional, it was in place for 47 years and eventually involved 130 countries

  21. WTO • April 1994 contracting partners to GATT became members of WTO • By early C21, more than 140 members • Operates via a series of trade rounds, negotiations aimed at reducing tariffs and quotas, first in manufactured goods, then extended to the service sector • 1960-61 Dillon Round; 1964-67 Kennedy Round; 1973-79 Tokyo Round; 1986-94 Uruguay Round; 2001 Doha Development Agenda

  22. Mission • Mission – to liberalise world trade and create an ‘open’ global trading system • Part of this mission is to protect small nations from discriminatory trade practices of large and powerful countries in that all members should have equal access to each other’s markets • They are also supposed to help governments resist lobbying efforts of strong domestic interest groups seeking to increase prices

  23. Criticisms of WTO • WTO infringes upon national sovereignty and promotes the interests of large corporations at the expense of smaller local firms struggling to cope with import competition • Trade liberalization leads to environmental damage and harms the interests of low-skilled unionized workers • WTO rules are written by and for corporations with inside access to the negotiations. • For example, the US Trade Representative gets heavy input for negotiations from 17 "Industry Sector Advisory Committees.“

  24. More criticisms • Citizen input by consumer, environmental, human rights and labor organizations is consistently ignored. • Even simple requests for information are denied, and the proceedings are held in secret • Illegal for a govert to ban a product based on the way it is produced, such as with child labor • Cannot take into account "non commercial values" such as human rights of possible danger of genetically modified organisms

  25. Final criticisms • In theory, WTO is democratic, and each member has one vote • But poor countries are excluded from key discussions and decision making • Over 30 countries have no negotiators at WTO headquarters. • Other poor countries have only one negotiator, who has the impossible task of attending over 1000 WTO meetings a year

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