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The Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs) have, over the past two decades, entered centre stage in their active participation in the social, political and economic issues affecting both the developing and developed world. This book offers a highly stimulating and concise summary of the NGDO sector by examining their history and metamorphosis; their influence on the social, political and economic landscapes of the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ governments and societies. The author analyses competing theoretical and conceptual debates not only regarding their contribution to the global social political dynamism but also on the sector’s changing external influence as they try...
The creation of the UN system during World War II is a largely unknown or forgotten story among contemporary decision makers, international relations specialists, and policy analysts. This book aims to recover the wartime history of the United Nations and explore how the forgotten past can shed light on a possible and more desirable future. To achieve this, each chapter takes three snapshots: "Then," the imaginative and transnational thinking about solutions to post-war problems demonstrated a realization that victory in WW II required an intergovernmental "system" with enough power and competence to work—that is, the UN was not established as a liberal plaything and public relations ploy ...
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has a complex position in international relations, being the guardian of international humanitarian law but often acting discretely to advance human dignity. Treated by most governments as if it were an inter-governmental organization, the ICRC is a non-governmental organization, all-Swiss at the top, and it is given rights and duties in the 1949 Geneva Conventions for Victims of War. Written by two formidable experts in the field, this book analyzes international humanitarian action as practiced by the International Red Cross, explaining its history and structure as well as examining contemporary field experience and broad diplomatic initi...
This book helps us to think carefully about how this area of the world should be best handled in the future by offering a concise and accessible introduction to the Arctic Council. Over the past two decades, the Arctic has evolved from being a remote region in international affairs to becoming an increasingly central concern of the global community. The issues of climate change, access to new energy resources, the development of new global trade routes, the protection of the natural environment and the preservation of indigenous cultures and languages have all come to be focused within this formerly neglected region. Now in its nineteenth year of operation the Arctic Council, an innovative i...
Why are non-state actors sometimes granted participation rights in international organizations? This book argues that IOs, and the states that compose them, systematically pursue their interests when granting participation rights to NSAs. This book demonstrates that NSAs have long been participants in global governance institutions, and that states and bureaucracies have not always resisted their inclusion. At the same time, this study encourages skepticism of the assumption that increasing participation should be expected with the passage of time. The result is a study that challenges some commonly held assumptions about the interests of IOs and states, while providing an interesting compar...
International organisations (IOs) often receive a bad press, seen as intrusive, domineering and unresponsive to the needs of the people and countries they are meant to serve. The best way to understand the operation of these international organisations is to bring together those who represent their countries at IOs and those who have been working at IOs at various capacities and then to listen to their experiences. This book develops an alternative approach to the analysis of IOs that takes account of all those involved, whether state representatives, IO leaders and members of the secretariat. Experts with long experience in the WTO, the World Bank, the IMF, WIPO, the FAO and the WHO at seni...
Continuing to provide a concise approach to this crucial organization, the second edition of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization: The Enduring Alliance is fully updated to take in the developments since 2007, with key additions including: Discussion of NATO’s place in a changing world Consideration of recent operations on the alliance Evaluation of the impact of the financial crisis Reconsideration of the NATO-EU relationship Discussion of the US pivot to Asia-Pacific and its impact on NATO The implications for NATO of Russia’s action in Ukraine The rise of emerging security challenges, including Islamic State A new chapter looking to the future of NATO in light of the recent developments Highlighting the continued importance of NATO in the international arena, this accessible guide details the origins, institutions, workings and activities of the organization, as well as contributing valuable insights to the debate surrounding the future of the alliance.
Over the past five decades, the European Union (EU) has developed into the most legally and politically authoritative regional organization in the world, wielding significant influence across a wide range of issue areas. European Union and Environmental Governance focuses on the growing global role of EU environmental and sustainable development policies. Written in a concise and accessible manner, this book introduces and examines the major European and global environmental issues, debates, and policies and provides a critical, evidence-based evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings to date in EU environmental and sustainability governance. Providing both an historical overview and a discussion of the major future legal, political and economic challenges to the realization of EU goals related to better environmental governance, the authors offer a comprehensive introduction to this key issue. This book will be useful reading for students of global environmental politics, comparative environmental politics and policy, international organizations, European politics, and environmental studies.
Peacebuilding is a critical issue in world politics. Surprisingly, however, there has not been a full examination of concrete policies and implementation strategies to generate legitimacy in "host states" by either international relations (IR) theorists or practitioners. The objective of this book is to develop an understanding of the mechanisms for constructing—or eroding—the legitimacy of newly created governments in post-conflict peacebuilding environments. The book argues that although existing accounts in the literature contend that compliance with key political programs, and constructing legitimacy in peacebuilding, largely depend on the levels of force (guns) and resource distribu...
It has become commonplace to observe the growing pervasiveness and impact of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). And yet the three central approaches in International Relations (IR) theory, Liberalism, Realism and Constructivism, overlook or ignore the importance of NGOs, both theoretically and politically. Offering a timely reappraisal of NGOs, and a parallel reappraisal of theory in IR—the academic discipline entrusted with revealing and explaining world politics, this book uses practice theory, global governance, and new institutionalism to theorize NGO accountability and analyze the history of NGOs. This study uses evidence from empirical data from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia and from studies that range across the issue-areas of peacebuilding, ethnic reconciliation, and labor rights to show IR theory has often prejudged and misread the agency of NGOs. Drawing together a group of leading international relations theorists, this book explores the frontiers of new research on the role of such forces in world politics and is required reading for students, NGO activists, and policy-makers.