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International Organizations Archive

 

A FRESH LOOK AT GLOBAL GOVERNANCE: EXPLORING OBEJCTIVE CRITERIA FOR REPRESENTATION. Center for Global Development. Enrique Rueda-Sabater et al. February 2009.
Full Text [HTML format with link to the PDF file]
According to the report, the geopolitical world of the 21st century is very different than that of the post–World War II era. The authors argue that it has to balance representation, which is made credible by the inclusion of key parts of the global community, and effectiveness, which means involving as small a number of actors as possible while having access to the resources to turn decisions/intentions into action/results. They propose simple, fundamental criteria, based on global shares of GDP and population, around which global governance might be organized.
[Note: contains copyrighted material]

 

AA09067
Simon, Jeffrey NATO’S UNCERTAIN FUTURE: IS DEMOGRAPHY DESTINY? (Strategic Forum, No. 236, October 2008, pp. 1-6)
Currently available online
The author, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, notes that NATO is increasingly constrained by demographic shifts within its membership that will hamper its ability to deploy operational forces and further strain the transatlanticrelationship in the years ahead. NATO has shifted from large conscript forces, which were useful during the Cold War, toward smaller, all-volunteer military establishments to carry out expeditionary operations. This shift has had different political consequences in Europe and the U.S., and has resulted in diverging views of the role of the military. Demographically, the gap between U.S. and European NATO members’ military-age cohorts is widening, with the U.S. numbers rising while those of Europe shrink. At the same time, immigration patterns and internal demographics could erode the common historic identity of the U.S. and Europe. A relatively young and growing U.S. population will contribute to its slightly enhanced global economic profile in 2050, while Europe’s aging and shrinking productive population will be a factor in its diminishing presence. Finally, the world’s population and the center of its economic growth will continue to reflect the inexorable shift away from the Eurocentric world that existed when NATO was created in 1949, leading to Europe’s rapid demographic marginalization and relative economic decline by 2050.

 

CAPACITY SURVEY: REGIONAL AND OTHER INTERGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS IN THE MAINTENANCE OF PEACE AND SECURITY 2008. United Nations University. November 10, 2008.
Full Text [PDF format, 159 pages]
The study is the first global survey of the capacities of all regional organizations in the field of peace of security, conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, enforcement, and peace-building. Over the last decade, regional organizations have been empowered by the United Nations and national governments concurrently to maintain peace and security. The Survey maps out, in a comparative and descriptive fashion, their history, capacities and operational experience. [Note: contains copyrighted material]

 

THE WORLD BANK’S INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (IDA). Martin A. Weiss. Congressional Research Service (CRS), Library of Congress. April 18, 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 21 pages]

The World Bank makes loans and grants to low and middle-income countries. One of its institutions lends directly to governments to finance projects and programs. This institution is the International Development Association (IDA. On March 5, 2007, donor nations discussed replenishing IDA funds. They selected the following three themes for IDA-15:

  • IDA’s role in international foreign aid;
  • The World Bank’s role in post-conflict reconstruction; and
  • The need to improved IDA’s effectiveness.

This report provides background material on IDA and the U.S.’s role at this institution. It also examines IDA-15 negotiations and analyzes the three themes.

 

REFORM OF THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND. Peter B. Kenen. Council Special Report, Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, Council on Foreign Relations. Web posted May 10, 2007.
Full Text [pdf format, 56 pages]

The original purpose and scope of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was to maintain monetary and exchange-rate stability among its mostly industrialized membership. Today, however, most of its members are from developing countries. The expansion of IMF’s macroeconomic issues has led some to call for reform. The authors urge the U.S. to support reform, but they argue that “the United States should not try to achieve unilaterally what the Fund can and should achieve multilaterally.”

 

AA07208
Michta, Andrew WHAT NEXT FOR NATO? (Orbis, vol. 51, no. 1, Winter 2007, pp. 141-153)
Full text available from your nearest American Library

NATO’s mission in Afghanistan is no less than a test case for the future of the alliance. Its future relevance will depend on its ability to develop and maintain broad agreement on its overall missions, but Afghanistan shows a widening gulf between the United States and Europe in the willingness to equitably share priorities and risk in the name of accomplishing the alliance’s security missions. The author argues that today, Europe appears to be trapped in the strategic “pause” of the 1990s and does not share the U.S. view on the magnitude of the threat posed by international terrorism. Iraq laid bare the historical rift between the United States on one side and France and Germany on the other, in addition to highlighting the contrast between the more skeptical “old Europe” and “new Europe” more eager to support U.S. objectives. While NATO’s role in Iraq is marginal, the clock of NATO’s future continues ticking in an increasingly uphill battle in Afghanistan.