Do intergovernmental organizations promote peace in the world?

Introduction

After WWII (Second World War) humanity decided to create intergovernmental organizations to control security throughout the world. Intergovernmental organization (IGOs) is defined as an “organization composed primarily of sovereign states (referred to as member states), or of other intergovernmental organizations. Intergovernmental organizations are often called international organizations, although that term may also include international nongovernmental organization such as international non-profit organizations (NGOs) or multinational corporations.”[1] Political science divides it into two parts, the first related to the realist perspective of views and liberalistic points of view respectively for the second.  The history of emergence of security theories and the relevance of international security organizations, which includes IGOs, in the world; maintenance of peace and security by IGOs will be covered in the research project.

Different types of security

Due to the comprehension of the importance of creating security [2]; in the interpretations of security there are different sectors:

1. Environmental  security
2. Collective security (which includes United Nations and European Union)
3. Economic security
4. Globalization (assumed as new sort of security)

Environmental Security

One of the newest concepts, during Cold War, was environmental security which was faced critically. Ex-Secretary of State of the United States of America Warren Christopher mentioned that “environmental security, alongside terrorism and nuclear proliferation …”, also he pointed that ES (environmental security) should be added into the list of “strategic importance to American and international security. Even the national borders are not precluding the environmental changes, that is why, the problem should be solved in the international level. [3] For instance Chernobyl disaster’s impact on the Europe was far from the Ukraine shown in the Figure 1. Moreover, due to deficit of natural resources, environmental monitoring must be applied to control the wild consumption of sources; comprehending the monitoring of nuclear power plants around the world.

Due to holocaustic consequences in Chernobyl, in cooperation with International Atomic Energy Agency, UN has been trying to maintain the level of radiation, monitoring and protection of environment. [14]

Collective security

Collective security is defined as “coalition strategy in which a group of nations agree not to attack each other, and to defend each other against an attack from others, if such an attack is made.”

Figure 1

 

UNEP/GRID-Arendal, Radiation from Chernobyl, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library, http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/radiation-from-chernobyl (Accessed 6 November 2011)

However, it differs from “collective defense” which refers to defense its own group against outside attacks. NATO and the Warsaw Pact are examples of collective defense, at the same time the United Nations assumed as collective security organization.[4] The ultimate goal of these organizations is to prevent the political dilemma between states. Special status of interdependence from any country vests them with the power to solve the problems on the Global Arena. Provided that all will be ideal, the world might not suffer from the probable wars. Nonetheless, these organizations dependant from some countries indirectly, assuming that the financing of that the United Nations is mainly provided by the United States, consequently the headquarters are influenced by the government of the US. [13]

Another huge instance of collective security is European Union, which was reformed from European Community of Steel and Coal (ECSC). In the beginning only six members were consisting ECSC. The main purpose of creating the ECSC was preventing any war between France and Germany.[5] Nonetheless, the consequences were establishing the community which works in cooperation of “supranational independent institutions” with “intergovernmental decision making negotiated by the member states” [6]

The main purposes of the European Union had been successfully achieved, the non-existence of interstate collisions among European countries proved the success of EU. Furthermore, it might be an ideal solution for creating peace on the world by integrating the idea of collective security. Some analysts think that EU assumed as is transitional stage in creating so-called “United States of Europe”. [6]

Economic security

Economic security is defined as “the condition of having stable income or other resources to support a standard of living now and in the foreseeable future.”[7]

Principally, the main idea is focused on analyzing the current situation, averting the troubles in the sphere of economics related to the social problems. Here we should add a new term Economic Security Index (ESI). [9]

Figure 2.

http://economicsecurityindex.org/assets/Economic%20Security%20Index%20Full%20Report.pdf

“The ESI is defined as a weighted average of the scores of the seven forms of security, in which double weight is given to income security and to representation security, for reasons that basic income security is essential for real freedom to make choices and that representation security is essential to enable the vulnerable to retain income security.” [19]

“During the recession of the early 2000s, 17 percent of Americans experienced a major economic loss without an adequate financial safety net”. [9] Figure 2 illustrates the percentage of population which is suffered from economic instability; the number of people who sustained the great losses in their income (25% of income, excluding any kind of taxes), which is assumed to be the highest over the quarter of century. Most Americans rely on their income without taking into consideration the “act of God”, even a good and stable income will not guarantee economic security.  A Rockefeller foundation sponsored the research in 1985, which refers to observation the three “major risks to economic well-being”:

1. “Experiencing a major loss in income”
2. “Incurring large out-of-pocket medical expenses”
3. “Lacking adequate financial wealth to buffer the first two risks”. [9]

The research identified that the wealth of average citizen has increased in 25 years; nevertheless, the probability of suffering from economic crisis has increased significantly, as it was shown in Figure 2. Not surprisingly, that the level of “average after-tax income” rose by “21 percent for the middle fifth of American households, but increased by 112 percent for the richest 10 percent of households and 256 percent for the top 1 percent.” [10] 

Analytics think that it might be one of the substantial causes in destroying the peaceful society due to the challenges for the lower and middle segment of the people. Consequently the problem of economic security of insecure segment of the people must be taken into consideration.  

In the summit of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Astana, 2010; the solution to prevent the global economic recession was suggested by creating new global currency. [15]  

Globalization

In modern society globalization faced as inevitable process. [18] The consequences of globalization are clearly seen in all spheres of people’s life. The term “Globalization” has a huge amount of definition; however, the idea is erasing the borders between countries, increasing the rate of trade and bargains between them. Hence, globalization should be assumed as the solution to insecurity situation in the world. “From the Neo-liberal point of view it is characterized by the decline of relevance and authority of nation-states, brought about largely through the economic logic of a global market.”[11] Due to the short history of globalization, it could not be said whether it is sufficient or not; nonetheless, globalization has a positive effect on countries economy, for instance, the multinational corporations like Mc Donald’s offers a huge amount of workplaces. [11] On the one hand, globalization causes the dependence of some third world countries, converting it into the “base of resources”, on the other hand each country needs to negotiate with other countries. Therefore, the countries should open their borders and merge with the world whether it will be beneficial for both sides or not. [17]

“A good example of that is how the American managers went to Japan to learn the best practices in the field of mass production and incorporated that knowledge in their own production units.” [16] 

Analyzing the Liberal and Realist perspectives on intergovernmental security organization 

According to the liberal perspective “managing security issues should involve the cooperation of states by intergovernmental organizations to achieve peace-keeping relations between states. Liberalism describes the efficiency of IGOs by stating that the actions always rational and correct. [12] Hence, from that point of view the IGOs is managing with the tensions between countries.

The intervention in Iraq proved the efficiency of the IGOs in keeping security among Iraq’s citizens compared to the existed terroristic regime of Saddam Hussein. [20] 

Oppositely, realism states that the security or the peace in the world kept by the balance of power. Lack of stability in balance of power could lead to the insecurity in the international relations. Realist theory denies the idea of intergovernmental security organizations by stating that the human nature is greedy and selfish, making the assumption that the international system is anarchic and there is no central authority to control the security in the world.  [12]

For instance, in the period of Cold War the peace was keeping by the balance of power of the United States of America and USSR. [21] 

Conclusion

After reviewing the concepts of international security, it is hard to define whether the intergovernmental security organizations beneficial or not; however, it is proved that the majority of the international tension solved by the IGSOs. Despite of it, the respectable attitudes towards the UN are disappearing due to the latest actions of NATO in Libya, where the intervention was not received the sanction from the United Nations. After comprehension the perspectives of Liberals and Realists, it is impossible to decide whether one of the perspective is conceptually right, it is dubious question, because of the untenability of each perspective separately. The solution to keep the peace in the world is combining two perspectives, where the balance of power and the international monitoring of the security should demonstrate the efficiency, instead of arguing about the relevance of IGSOs in the Global arena.    

Recommendations

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Reference list:

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