How History Influenced the Emergence And Development of International Organizations - Essay Example

How history influenced the emergence and development of international organizations Introduction The number on international organizations is on the increase because many nations are seeing the importance of uniting to enable them achieving their set objectives. Similarly, there are many challenges, which nations face such terrorism, economic downturn, corruption, civil war among others that call for international community to intervene. Similarly, international organizations have a rich history which dates back decades ago when nations saw the need of pulling their resources together to enable them have strengths of overcoming different problems. Hence, international organizations play a critical role in ensuring member nations or nations within their operational area benefits from the services offered. Similarly, international organizations help in formulating policies, which helps in interstate relation by limiting the boundaries of each state. Moreover, they pull resources used in carrying out operations and mitigation measures towards a cause. Because of this, some international organizations like the United Nations (UN) has been in the forefront to pull resource towards fighting terrorism and disease epidemic such as Ebola. Therefore, the rest of the paper will define international organizations and give their examples before outlining reasons for their formation, roles, and ways they have developed over the years. International organizations International organizations are defined as organizations, which have its members from different nations and operate worldwide (Elie 346). The history is international organizations dates back in 1815 with the creation of Central Commission for Navigation on the Rhine. The organization was created by Congress in Vienna and had different roles to perform. International organizations have a wider scope since they operate across nations with different defined roles and scope. Because of their mandate, international organizations are further divided in to two categories namely international nongovernmental organization (INGOs) and Intergovernmental organization (Elie 349). These grouping have two different mandates and their membership is also different and diverse. For example, INGOs consist of international organization, which do charity work and are not connected with the government as they do their own activities independently. They are also non-profit organizations that operate in different nations to help the vulnerable and advocate the governments to enact different policies. Some of these international organizations include International Committee of the Red Cross, World Safeguards and Media Limited, World Vision International, among others. On the other hand, intergovernmental, are organizations formed among states for a particular reason. Similarly, they are formed due to joint efforts of sovereign states known as member states in order to champion a common goal. Examples of these organizations include UN, European Union, Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development among others. The emergence and development of international organizations There are many international organizations, which are operating as state members or independently making them have diverse function. Every organization has a purpose and mandate, which it seeks to fulfill. Similarly, there are factors that contributed to their formations, which it considers as a primary goal. Therefore, the subsequent section will highlights different international organizations and indicate ways history influenced their formation as well as their function and development over the years. United Nations UN is an international organization very active in matters pertaining to politics, economic and social issues. President Franklin D. Roosevelt of US coined the name of this organization and used during declaration by United Nations in 1942. This period was characterized by WW II and representatives from over 26 states and governments came in to pledge their support in the fight against axis powers in order to end the destructive war. Before the WW I, the world had been experiencing was such civil war in France and America as well as other parts which called the need to have a peaceful way of resolving such disputes (McManus 264). This led to the 1899 International Peace Conference held in The Hague to consider ways to settle crisis in a peaceful way, end war, and develop rules that governs war. The result of this meeting lead to the creation of Permanent Court of Arbitration and adopted the Convention for the Pacific Settlement of International Dispute and they became operational in 1902 (McManus 264). Similar, one conference held led to the development of organizations which works ensure war does not recur but some were never successful. For instance, League of Nations was formed after WW I and was to ensure that such war do not happen or recur. The Treaty of Versailles held in 1919 developed the League of Nations and was charged with promoting international cooperation and achieving peace and security (McManus 264). International Labor Organization was also formed under the Versailles Treaty and it was affiliated with League of Nations to oversee labor in the member states. However, League of Nations failed to work and achieve its primary goal of preventing occurrence of another war. Hence, it ceased and another conference was called after WW II to chat way leading to the development of UN (McManus 264). It had representatives from over 50 nations and they met in San Francisco to draw the UN charter before it was signed in June 26, 1945 (McManus 264). Since the inception of UN, it has carried out different mandates, which aims at promoting peace among its member states and other nations, which are not members or state actors. Its primary objective is to prevent occurrence of another world war. Since then, it has achieved many success including stopping world war and settling conflict and disagreement among nations. Similarly, it has continued to grow by opening new agencies and admitting new members. For instance, UN opened agencies called International Criminal Court that prosecutes and try perpetrators of war crime and individuals with high responsibilities in war. It has also been in the forefront in disarming nations and communities with the aim of promoting peace in the world. Its oversight authority is well considered since a major war has not taken place rather than civil war, which are contained. They are also involved in peacekeeping mission in the war torn countries such as Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia among other nations. International Organization for Migration The WW II came with many social, economic, and political implications that the world still experience to date. There was a large displacement of people, death, and destruction of property, which was a loss to every nation. Similarly, people were not prepared for the war hence no structures were placed leading to many effects not expected. Since the end of the war, many international organizations were formed to deal with aftermath of the war and restore normalcy among the affected nations and to the world. Hence, international organizations were formed to deal with challenge of immigrants who seek refuge in the neighboring countries for safety. International organization for migration (IOM) was established in 1951 after the WW II in the western or European nations where the war took place (Elie 350). Its primary goal was to help western nations and their governments to identify countries where they could resettle people who were displaced after the WW II. The displaced population was considered over 11 million and they had nowhere to go or call home leading to intervention of western nations and other in every part of the world. The history of IOM revolve around man-made disasters such as Vietnamese boat people of 1975, Kosovo disaster among other and this has made it receive recognition from different stakeholder and other international agencies (Elie 355). It has ensured that migration occurs in an orderly manner that benefits the society and the migrants and this has made it receive praise in the international arena. The organization has been transforming itself since its inception as an agency in charge of operational logistics. Today, IOM is the leader organization working with various governments and civil groups or pressure groups to promote understanding of migration issue. It also plays part in encouraging social and economic development through migration and upholding human dignity of migrants (Elie 357). The organization has widened its scope owing to increasing number of migration in different parts of the world. Besides the above, IOM carries out many activities aimed at uplifting the life and standard of living among the vulnerable and disadvantaged group. For instance, the organization conducts humanitarian activities throughout the world. It runs different humanitarian emergency programs such as protection of rights of disaster and war population, capacity building, emergency relief among other to the affected population. The organization also wants to enhance people’s understanding by making them know that it is for all. The organization empowers individual and nations to realize that migration comes with benefits to all the concerned parties, hence need not to be looked on one direction. It also works in counter-trafficking of migrants and refugee settlement to ensure sustainability (Elie 350-53). Over the years, the organization has conducted research on migration policy, which aims at guiding migration policies and practices. Lastly, it carries out advocacy and campaigns, which aims at protecting migrants in the host nations. The organization believes every individual has a right and necessities to meet hence needs protection like others. Hence, it programs aims at uplifting living standards of the marginalized, vulnerable and migrants. International Committee for Red Cross International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is an organization with its headquarter in Geneva, Switzerland and serves humanitarian needs (Andre 147). The organization is charged with the responsibility of protecting the victims of international and domestic armed conflict. ICRC is composed of international members who are signatories to Geneva Convention passed in 1949 (Andre 147). The history of ICRC dates back in 1863 during the French war. Many soldiers were wounded and there was a need to take care of them and does all that pertain to their wellbeing and welfare. Because of this, several conferences were held to look at a way of restoring dignity and wellbeing of soldiers as well as to care for them. Hence, the conference came to a number of resolutions, which resulted, to foundation of national societies for wounded soldiers, neutrality when protecting wounded soldiers, utilization of volunteers, development of binding international treaties as well as introduction of a common symbol (Andre 147). ICRC has been taking a central role in offering humanitarian assistance to not only the wounded but to the civilian too. For instance, the WW I saw it get overwhelmed with work and needed assistance to overcome the challenges. Therefore, the organization collaborated with others such as Red Cross to get enough nurses it used in providing care to the wounded soldiers and civilians. After the commencement of WW I, the organization set up an agency called International Prisoners of War and it contributed and gave donations to war victims thereby restoring their dignity (Andre 147). ICRC also played a central role during Chaco war in 1932, which was because of Paraguay and Bolivia, and they were fighting over Gran Chaco. The organization had a duty of bringing the warring nations together and taking care of the victims, casualties as well as soldiers who participated. Because of their responsibility, it attended to over 18,000 prisoners from Bolivia and above 2000 detainees from Paraguay (Andre 147). The organizational intervention led to the improvements of the detained conditions in the two nations. ICRC had responsibilities to play in relation to Geneva contention. It visited the prisoners of war camps, organized for relief aid to civilians and other victims and searched for missing people (Andre 147). It was successful in looking after the welfare of the wounded and giving a decent send off to those who were unable to trace their origin or home places. Over the years, the organization has been working towards achieving its mission contained in Geneva Convention and its own status. Some of the missions include monitoring compliance between the wearing parties to the Geneva Convention, acting as a neutral intermediary between the parties in conflict, supervising treatment of prisoners or war, and making private interventions with the authorities (Andre 147). Besides, they protect and care for the civilian population, nurse those wounded in the battlefield and searching for missing people. The ICRC has been successful in implementing its mission since it has recorded success stories in Gaza, Syria and other parts of the world. World Trade Organization World Trade Organization (WTO) was created after the failure of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade after the end of WW II. Te aftermath of WW II was severe and nations were looking for ways of building their economies following the war (Portanskii 63). They were also looking for economic cooperation to enable them achieve their missions and objectives which they aspired. The WTO has different responsibilities according to the treaty signed by member states and among them includes overseeing implementation, administration and operations covered ion the treaty (Portanskii 64). It also offers a forum for negotiation and settling trade disputes. Moreover, the organization propagates and review trade policies and ensures they are compatible with the accepted standards within the globe (Portanskii 65). It offers surveillance through coherence and transparency in trade policies to set a standard for operation. Additionally, WTO assists developing countries and less developed nations to adjust to the standards and rule of WTO by offering technical cooperation and trainings to these countries (Portanskii 65). Besides the duties of the organization, it operates under certain conditions and rules which its members abide. For instance, it is a non-discriminatory organization where its serves as per organizational rule and set standards. Its members are required to grant favors to all and offer equal treatments to members without considering other factors other than what is mentioned. Secondly, the organization has a binding and enforcement commitment in term of tariffs. Therefore, there are binding ceiling, which its members observe in the course of transacting with one another. Members are also expected under the organizational principles to be transparent by publishing their trade regulations, which allow for review when making administrative decisions (Portanskii 63-71). Since the inception of the organization years back, it has succeeded in developing member states and offering new admission to other nations. It has contributed in developing parameters, which its members can adopt to make them competitive and to overcome some barriers related to tariffs. Similarly, it has ensured fair trade among its members, hence promoting the wellbeing of every member of the organization or state parties. In other instances, the WTO has made it easy for member states to negotiate for cheaper services compared to states, which are not members. Because of this, the organization has recorded a success over the years and it is still on the journey or making more commitments to its members. This will ensure that it remains committed as an international organization, which is considering the welfare of all member states. Conclusion International organizations were for different purposes in different times of the century. Some were formed because of joint efforts between various governments or states as other were formed for humanitarian purposes. Despite their differences in formation, most of the international organizations were formed to bring normalcy after WW II. UN is one of the active international organizations formed to ensure peace prevails in the world and to prevent the occurrence of another world war. Since its inception, no major has taken place making it successful in its mission. Similarly, ICRC is committed in ensuring all victims of war including soldiers and civilians receive a medical care, which ensures their wellbeing. They have proved successful in offering medical attention to most vulnerable in war torn areas. Works Cited Andre Durand. History of the International Committee of the Red Cross: From Sarajevo to Hiroshima. Geneva: ICRC, 2014. Print. Elie, Jérôme. "The Historical Roots of Cooperation between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration." Global Governance 16.3 (2010): 345-360. McManus, John. "The Plan to Have the U.N. Rule." Vital Speeches Of The Day 68.9 (2002): 264 Portanskii, A. "Russia and the World Trade Organization”. Problems Of Economic Transition 55.1 (2012): 63-77 Read More