IOs - Authority and Legitimacy
What are the defining criteria for an IO?
- founded through a formal treaty
- have states as their members
- have an independent corporate personality
NGOs
Consultant experts
Corporations and foundations
Provides a mechanism for the GA to take action in cases where the security council is unable due to a lack of consensus among its permanent members
Key principles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
Non-discrimination
- National treatment
- Most favored nation (MFN)
- No quantitative barriers
- Basic trade agreements for international trade
- Reciprocity
- Progressive liberalization through successive rounds of negotiations
What is the boomerang model?
describes a process through which domestic advocacy groups leverage international networks and norms to pressure their own governments.
- Ex: anti-apartheid
Activists/NGOs influence states through
o Advocacy in trans-national networks
o International socialization and persuasion
o Moral persuasion and social pressure in international context
o Transnational advocacy networks worked with South African opposition
o Mobilization of international campaign to pressure apartheid government
o States increasingly restricted relations because of domestic pressure
What are 3 ways IOs operate?
Actor, Forum, Resource
- as an actor, they can promote cooperation, facilitate conflict resolution and peacekeeping efforts to coordinate standard-setting
- as a forum, they provide a space for deliberation at the yearly UN convention
- as a resource, IOs can provide peacekeepers, expertise on matters, and funding, such as through the IMF
Principle organs of the UN
- Security Council
- Trusteeship Council
- Economic and Social Council
- International Court of Justice
What are criticisms given by Auteseer on the UN's approach to peacekeeping and Bellamy on the R2P doctrine?
Auteserre:
UN peacekeepers too often fail to meet their most basic objectives
- Part of the reason for this failure is a lack of resources
The larger problem is a fundamental misunderstanding about what makes for a sustained peace as the UN’s strategy is top-down
- Article proposes the UN rethinks how it hires. It should give preference to nationals over foreigners when filling posts for a given mission. Foreigners should be hired only for positions for which no local person with the necessary skills can be found or for those in which outsider status is an asset
Bellamy:
Doctrine and the UN in general failed to protect populations from genocide and war crimes
- Criticizes the UN because they prioritize prevention over action
- A world with less humanitarian intervention will be a world with more atrocities and less protection
Core goals of the World Trade Organization
Establish rules that govern how members can set domestic policies that affect international trade
Promotes free and fair trade
reduces barriers such as tariffs and quotas
assists developing countries
What is the UNHRC?
Member states elected by secret ballot
o Proportionate by region
o No more than two terms in a row
o Prone to politicization
- UN High commissioner for human rights
o Information and advocacy approach
o Independent expert body
o High commissioner’s diplomatic work also important
Sources of authority for IOs and principle agent theory
- delegated authority - states want this done
- moral authority
- expert authority
Principle agent theory
- one party delegates authority to another because it's inefficient for every state to be experts across all areas. However, the delegate can diverge in its objectives via slippage or shirking. Shirking is when A minimizes its efforts on P's behalf, but slippage is when A shifts policy away from P's preferred outcome.
How can the UN enforce international laws?
Chapter VII of the UN Charter • Security Council • Sanctions • Peace-enforcing • Authorizing armed force
Informal: • Shaming • Uses the institution’s legitimacy
ICC-ICJ
Chapter 6 addresses peacekeeping, while chapter 7 addresses peace enforcement. Under Chapter 6, multinational force is only authorized in self-defense based on impartiality and consent. The UN is supposed to remain impartial between the sides of the conflict and must get consent from the state in which it wants to send peacekeepers. Under Chapter 7, the UN essentially approves war. Invoking Chapter 7 is very rare and authorizes force to accomplish goals set by the security council. There is no UN army, so the UN relies of member states.
- ch. 6 ex: Suez crisis -> use of uniting for peace.
- ch. 7 ex: Libya -> authorized member states to take all measures to protect civilians
Main goals of the IMF and World Bank
The IMF provides emergency loans for states. It is funded by quotas from member states and state’s voting power depends on how much money you've put in. This also means bigger economies have more votes as countries can’t contribute more than their quota. The world bank provides funding and resources for economic development.
- SAP – structural adjustment program applied to both the WTO and IMF for market-oriented reforms. It emphasizes privatization and fiscal autonomy.
What treaty established the ICC?
The Rome statute in 1998 – took effect in 2008 and only cases after 2002 can be heard
IOs are hierarchical, with a clear division of labor. They possess continuity and impersonality and provide expertise.
Explain the security council and the general assembly
The SC is made up of five permanent members: the US, UK, China, Russia, and France. The SC is in a position of legal superiority, perhaps even “sovereignty” over the policies of UN members. They have veto powers, adopt resolutions, and resolutions are binding if 9/15 members vote in favor. It is highly undemocratic but has dispositive authority to impose obligations on all member states. The GA has a broader scope than the SC because the charter authorizes it to discuss any questions or any matters within the scope of the present charter. They are more of a democratic body with the responsibility to protect and prioritize development goals.
What are some challenges to peacekeeping
The UN is supposed to remain impartial between the sides of the conflict and must get consent from the state in which it wants to send peacekeepers. This poses a challenge when there is a lack of consent and if it would cause the UN would pick sides. (ex. Rwanda). Instead, the UN would rather do nothing than fail to try. The UN ultimately prioritizes prevention over action, and they are heavily criticized for this as it provides the world with less protection.
o There are many ‘new wars’ that blur the lines between war and organized crime. These are often led by non-state armed groups that make it difficult for peacekeepers to figure out who to fight.
o Lastly, the UN applies a cookie cutter approach to their peacekeeping efforts. They assume that it will work as a top-down approach, but authors criticize that it must reach the lowest ranks of the militaries for it to take affect
- So a continuation of efforts
- Also not all peacekeeping will work for every country because they try and impose democratic practices in states that have never been democratic
What is the core purpose of the ICJ?
What kinds of cases can it hear, and what are the criteria for its jurisdiction?
The ICJ hears cases involving legal complaints between governments
- Criteria for jurisdiction:
o An international legal dispute
o Must be between two states
o The states must consent to the ICJ’s jurisdiction
§ This occurs when parties explicitly refer to the ICJ for a decision
§ when an international treaty includes a clause that refers cases to the ICJ
§ when states make a general declaration that they accept ICJs jurisdiction – called optional clause declarations
- The ICJ is meant to settle a dispute between two states over the legal obligations to other states
How does International criminal law challenge the idea of state sovereignty?
Between states
- Punished by states under domestic law
- ICL enables prosecution of crimes regardless of where they occurred
- Creation of international tribunals
Why do states delegate?
Gains from specialization -Expertise
• Coordination dilemmas - Standard-setting
• Public goods centralization - Hands-off monitoring
• Collective decision-making - Induce agreement - Resolve coordination problems
• Dispute resolution - Agent needs autonomy, impartiality, authority
• Credibility - Delegate enforcement so promises are more credible
Explain global civil society's involvement in international matters.
The different global civil society actors are NGOs, consultant experts and corporations and foundations. These actors can directly interact with the UN via advocacy and lobbying, research and knowledge sharing, humanitarian assistance, media and communications and private sector engagement. Essentially, they can aid in gaining domestic support to influence UN decisions. Their involvement faces controversy though as there are arguments for and against their involvement. Arguments for is that they provide representation and legitimacy, expertise, advocacy, and accountability. Arguments against involve that they tend to be elitist, and members are unelected so are they aren’t truly representative of the people.
What is R2P and its three pillars?
The R2P is a principle adopted in 2005 aimed at preventing and halting genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. It has three pillars. The first is the responsibility to protect populations from genocide. The second is that states are to assist each other, or supply foreign aid. The third is that if a state is failing to protect its population from genocide, the international community has a responsibility to take timely and decisive action in accordance with the UN Charter. It was created in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide when the UN did not step in and act due to bureaucratic constraints.
o Pillar 1: the responsibility to protect populations from genocide
o Pillar 2: international assistance and capacity building – states fulfilling their responsibility to protect – states are to assist each other (Foreign aid)
o Pillar 3: timely and decisive response; if a state is failing to protect its population from genocide, the international community has a responsibility to take timely and decisive action in accordance
Difference between jus ad bellum and jus in bello
Jus ad bellum
o Laws on rightful use of force
o When you can go to war
o Self-defense
o Paris peace treaty
o UN Charter
o CIL (custom international law)
o UN security council – main governing body
o UN general assembly to some extent
Jus in bello
o Laws of war
o Humanitarian law
o Principles
o Geneva convention
o Nuremburg trails
o Crimes against humanity
o ICRC (red cross)
o Has a secretariat
What is the ICC's criteria for jurisdiction and what are the 3 (or 4) crimes that the ICC can hear cases for?
The ICC prosecutes individuals for cases of war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and aggression. To have jurisdiction, one of the four crimes must be violated. The crime also has to have been committed on the territory of a member state or a citizen of a member state. An example of this is that Russia is not a member of the ICC, but Ukraine is, so Russia’s invasion can be brought to the ICC for aggression. Lastly, the courts of domestic jurisdiction must have failed to prosecute the individual for it to go to the ICC.