International Organisations: Global and Local

• Why more trade?


  Liberalisation, political choice not an accident

  Free movement of capital is main motivation for globalisation
• Problem of wide definitions


  A concept that includes everything explains nothing
• Thom Friedman


  World is flat: technology + neoliberalism, no reason for innovations to effect differently
• Valleys and Mountains


  No replacement for geography, more likely to trade with neighbours
• Importance of liberalism


  Initial liberalism period = start of global system
• Third wave of globalisation


  First to include whole world, not all peoples or areas are equally affected
• Deglobalisation


  Bringing production closer to home, explained by lockdown, global financial crisis
• Who is unhappy with globalisation?


  Western middle class, receive the least globalisation hence Trump and Brexit
• Retreat of the state


  Globalisation having adverse effects, states in 'race to the bottom'
• Growth of the state


  compensation hypothesis -> significantly more expenditure on welfare institutions
• Weak State


  USA, Federal government does nothing eg. no welfare state
• Strong state


  China, collective capabilities
• International organisation


  Process of institutionalisation among states

  The way the International realm is organised
• International Organisations


  Formal intergovernmental bureaucracies with physical manifestations

  Create obligaitons and rules

  Most ARE international institutions
• International Institution


  Broader, formal AND informal regularised behaviour

  Any set of rules that regulate or help redirect behaviuour
• International Regime


  Implicit or explicit principles around which expectations coverge

  IOs integral but not only part
• 4 threats to nation-states

  Capitalism, environment danger, identity politics, post-nuclear geopolitics
• Principal of legal equality


  all legally equal w/ equal weighting of votes
• Diffuse reciprocity


  All members benefit roughly the same + roughly as important
• Concert of Europe 1815


  Regional framework of rules w/ no formal organisation
• Hague System 1899 + 1907


  How to deal w/ rising German powers, Europeans and Non-Europeans treated differently
• Direct Obligations


  Black and white law, treaty a nation signs
• Indirect Obligations


  Black and white law, any laws not in initial treaty
• Compliance


  Based on incentives rather than force normally (subtle effects)
• Enforcement


  based on incentives rather than force (subtle effects)
• Legitimacy/Authority


  Need legitimacy to have authority, legitimacy backed by consent
• 'internal' legitimacy


  Structure, processes and actions fulfil normative criteria, more transparent + normative = more legitimacy
• External Consent


  More countries accept the IO, the more legitimate it is
• Output Legitimacy


  Ability of an IO to achieve normatively desirable outcomes
• Process legitimacy


  The way an IO exercises power and how decisions are made
• Structural legitimacy


  The right institution for the right job
• Isomorphic Mimicry


  Emulation of perceived good practices -> All IOs tend to look and work the same
• Multilateralism


  Coordinating relations among 3 or more states in accordance w/ certain principles, norms + institutions matter -> proving that cooperation is possible over competition
• US Hegemony


  Multilateralism cannot exist without hegemonic power, someone has to be backing up policy, reflection of US post-WW2
• Pre-1914 world economy


  Centres and their colonies: Gold standard, convertible money
• 1914 - 1945 world economy


  reduction of trade volume, nationalism and protectionism
• Bretton Woods 1945 - '70


  Goal is to be stable, enduring international economic order, avoid mistakes of the 1920s, WTO, IMF and World Bank

  Revival of Europe, collapse when USA abandons system, national interest rates linked
• Washington Consensus post '70s


  Thatcher + Raegan -> Neoliberal economics, liberating of capital

  IO's goal of creating global capitalism, promoting free tracde, all life not just markets
• International Monetary Fund


  Stable exchange rates, balance of payments, structural adjustment policy, developmental economies, near universal, weighted voting = US veto, lender of last resort, only informal enforcements eg. political influencce, borrower countries gain agency, can refuse to repay
• World Bank


  Development + Infrastructure, don't wait for crisis, low-income/poorest countries, infrastructure -> fallout of IMF policy, poverty reduction, relies on reputation for enforcement