Topic 9.8 Notes – Institutions Developing in a Globalized World

How Globalization Changed Relations Among States

As the world became more connected, problems stopped staying inside one country. A war could pull in many states, a financial crisis could spread quickly, and refugees or disease could cross borders fast.

• Globalization increased interdependence, meaning states affected each other more directly through trade, migration, transportation, communication, and information flows.
• States still stayed sovereign. They kept their own governments and national interests.
• The change was that they increasingly used permanent international organizations instead of relying only on temporary conferences or one-time diplomacy.
• This was a move toward multilateralism, which means cooperation among three or more states through shared rules and institutions.
• These organizations were part of global governance, meaning states coordinated behavior through rules and institutions without creating a single world government.
• Most were intergovernmental, so they depended on member states. A supranational body has more independent authority over members. The UN is mostly intergovernmental. The EU is a stronger supranational example.
• Old patterns did not disappear. States still formed alliances, competed for power, and pursued national interests.

From the League of Nations to the United Nations

After World War I, leaders tried to prevent another catastrophe through the League of Nations. It was built around collective security, the idea that aggression against one state should concern all.

Why the League failed

• The United States never joined, even though Woodrow Wilson supported it. That weakened the League from the start.
• It had no independent military force.
• It depended on members to enforce decisions.
• Decision-making was often slow.
• Major powers ignored it, withdrew, or acted anyway.

Failure examples

• Japan in Manchuria in 1931
• Italy in Ethiopia in 1935
• Nazi German expansion in the 1930s

Those failures taught states that international organization was still necessary, but major powers had to stay involved. This League meeting captures the kind of international cooperation leaders hoped could preserve peace.

League of Nations assembly

The United Nations

The United Nations was founded in 1945 at San Francisco. The UN Charter took effect on October 24, 1945.

Its stated purposes were to:

• maintain peace and security
• promote friendly relations among nations
• encourage economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation
• promote human rights
• provide a forum for coordinating state action

How the United Nations Works

The UN mixes equality and unequal power. Every state gets a voice, but the biggest powers got extra influence in 1945.

The key tension is easy to test. The General Assembly shows sovereign equality. The Security Council shows unequal power, especially through the veto.

What International Institutions Actually Did

The UN was supposed to do more than talk. Its record shows both real cooperation and serious limits.

• The UN has no permanent army. It relies on member states for troops and money.
• Peacekeeping missions monitored cease-fires, elections, disarmament, and rebuilding.
• Relative successes included Cambodia and Mozambique.
• A major failure was the Rwanda genocide in 1994, when weak mandates and lack of political will blocked action.
• During the Cold War, U.S.-Soviet rivalry often froze the UN through vetoes.

Cooperation also expanded beyond war:

• WHO worked on global health.
• UNESCO supported education, science, and culture.
• UNICEF focused on children.
• UNHCR helped refugees.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 set global norms, even though it was not itself enforceable world law.

A wider pattern appeared too:

• IMF and World Bank came from Bretton Woods
• WTO succeeded GATT
• European Union shows a more supranational model
• ASEAN shows regional cooperation that protects sovereignty and noninterference

Effects and Limits of International Organizations

These institutions changed daily international politics. Diplomacy became more continuous, more rule-based, and more public.

• Smaller states gained forums to build coalitions and shape debate.
• States could use international law, human rights, development, and collective security to justify policies.
• Procedures for sanctions, mediation, dispute resolution, and trade negotiation became normal.
• Decolonization expanded UN membership and made it more globally representative.
• The Bandung Conference in 1955 linked cooperation to sovereignty, anti-colonialism, racial equality, and noninterference.

Limits stayed just as real:

• State consent still mattered most.
• The veto could block action.
• Powerful states dominated many institutions.
• Organizations could be slow, selective, or weak.