This book analyzes the development of the European Parliament's (EP) committees and their relationship with national political parties in the light of the EP's increased legislative role over the last three decades. The book argues that national parties have a greater incentive to care about what goes on in the EP given the growth in its legislative power. Because most of the EP's detailed legislative work takes place in its committees, national parties should be concerned about their involvement with the EP's committee system. Based on extensive original research, this book shows how the EP's committees have changed over time in response to legislative empowerment and analyzes how national parties and individual MEPs use the committee system to further their policy goals. The book makes a theoretical contribution by providing an explanation for the variation in powers of committees between separated and fused systems of government and by adapting theories of legislative organization developed in the context of the US Congress, to the EP. The European Parliament's Committees will be of interest to students and scholars studying the European Parliament, EU institutions, policy-making, and the development of legislatures and political parties.

This book focuses on the nature of the public choice approach and many of the types of issues it raises. It presents a number of specific applications of public choice theory to the analysis of major international and regional economic organizations.

The notion of a single political organization encompassing the whole of humanity-a world state-has intrigued mankind since earliest recorded history. This book provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the history of world government, and questions whether political globalization, in the form of a federal world government, could and should complement the ongoing processes of economic and cultural globalization. While the potential peacekeeping advantage of such a state is obvious, the consensus judgment has always been against it, because it could lead to totalitarian tyranny. Yunker examines whether this judgment is still correct, considering that nuclear weapons of unimaginable destructiveness now exist, capable of destroying human civilization as we know it. Summarizing the lessons of history, the author suggests that while the conventional world federalist concept of an unlimited world government is still impractical in today's world, there may be a role for a limited federal world government that would go well beyond the existing United Nations, thereby providing a stronger institutional basis for the evolutionary development of genuinely effective global governance. This book is an important resource for all students and scholars of global governance, international relations and international organizations.

Four world food organizations are based in Rome: FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization); WFP (World Food Programme- British spelling is used in Rome); WFC (World Food Council); and IFAD (International Fund for Agricultural Development). For obvious reasons, acronyms are widely used when discussing their functions and activities. FAO came into being in 1945 even before the United Nations was officially launched; its original and continuing purposes are to aid agriculture worldwide so that "freedom from hunger" might actually become a reality. WFP is an experimental, now quasi-permanent institution of the early 1960's, using agricultural surpluses of the industrial countries to assist the development of agriculture in the newly created nations of Asia and Africa. In November 1974, the UN held a World Food Conference in Rome. It was the largest meeting of its type ever held, and out of its deliberations were born the WFC and IFAD. The former was designated the coordinating fuction of worldwide agricultural activities; the latter was to assist agricultural development, primarily in low-income Third World countries "the poorest of the poor." For reasons elaborated in the book, the World Food Council has been of marginal utility in the pursuit of its coordinating function; IFAD has been quite successful even though greatly underfunded. The production, distribution, and utilization of food is largely a function of individual countries. These four world organizations have as their principal purpose the improvement of agriculture in Third World countries. Talbot describes what they do to alleviate the continuing and often devastating problem of world hunger and why they really are unable to do what they were created for.

A PDF version of this book is available for free in open access via www.tandfebooks.com as well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license and is part of the OAPEN-UK research project. Structures and processes occurring within and between states are no longer the only - or even the most important - determinants of those political, economic and social developments and dynamics that shape the modern world. Many issues, including the environment, health, crime, drugs, migration and terrorism, can no longer be contained within national boundaries. As a result, it is not always possible to identify the loci for authority and legitimacy, and the role of governments has been called into question. Civil Society anf International Governance critically analyses the increasing impact of nongovernmental organisations and civil society on global and regional governance. Written from the standpoint of advocates of civil society and addressing the role of civil society in relation to the UN, the IMF, the G8 and the WTO, this volume assess the role of various non-state actors from three perspectives: theoretical aspects, civil society interaction with the European Union and civil society and regional governance outside Europe, specifically Africa, East Asia and the Middle East. It demonstrates that civil society's role has been more complex than one defined in terms, essentially, of resistance and includes actual participation in governance as well as multi-facetted contributions to legitimising and democratising global and regional governance. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science, international relations, civil society, sociology, European politics and global governance.

Globalisation has put national labour movements under severe pressure, due to the increasing transnationalisation of production, with the production of many goods being organised across borders, and the informalisation of the economy. Through a range of case studies, this volume examines the possibilities and obstacles to transnational solidarity of labour in a period of global restructuring and changing global political economy. It brings together a range of international and transnational case studies, examining successful and failed transnational solidarity covering inter-trade union co-operation as well as co-operation between trade unions and social movements within the formal and informal economy, and the public and private sector. It is structured in six parts and examines: Globalisation and the new challenges for transnational solidarity Inter trade union co-operation across borders. The dynamics of co-operation between trade unions and social movements across borders, looking at developing and developed countries. The struggles to defend the public sector against private service providers. The possible ways forward towards transnational solidarity of formal and informal labour in the global economy. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Political Economy, International Relations, Industrial Relation, Globalisation, Geography and History.

"A very valuable and much needed book on a central element in the processes of social change: the construction and reconstruction of social norms as they move between global and local levels." -Naila Kabeer, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK "This book explores how gender equality norms are ever-evolving and argues convincingly that we cannot take their effectiveness, nor their acceptance, for granted." -Judith Kelley, Duke Sanford School of Public Policy, USA "In an era of increasing resistance to gender equality, this is a much-needed volume that attends to how gender equality norms are interpreted and contested in governance organisations ranging from the UN and the EU to Mercosur and women's NGOs in India and Uganda." -Ann Towns, University of Gothenburg, Sweden This edited collection provides a new theoretical approach to the study of how global norms influence social processes. It analyses the institutional and highly political processes whereby actors - be they local, national, regional or trans-national - engage with global norms of gender equality. The editors bring together key thinkers who emphasise how context and history effect norm engagement and how particular groups and actors tend to be marginalised from discussions of global norms. By proposing a situated approach that underlines the contingent, multi-level processes that occur when actors interpret, use, manipulate, bend, or betray norms, notions of norm diffusion are fundamentally challenged. This book makes a further crucial contribution to the study of norms and gender equality in global governance by analysing very different empirical contexts, from New Delhi and St. Petersburg to the Organisation of American States, and from Kampala and New York to the European Union.

One of the most pervasive phenomena that distinguish the early 21st century is the prevalence of international organizations (IOs). There are IOs in virtually every sector: political, economic, trade, social, educational, scientific, defense, and so forth. Some IOs are restricted to clearly defined activities and closely controlled by their members; others just grow and grow, moving into new sections and becoming more powerful in some ways than their members. The second edition of Historical Dictionary of International Organizations provides a comprehensive overview of the major international organizations, both intergovernmental and international intergovernmental, of the 20th and 21st centuries. While the emphasis is on organizations that continue to operate today, important organizations that have ceased to exist are also included. This reference includes a chronology, an introductory essay, and over 700 cross-referenced dictionary entries on the organizations, significant leaders, pioneers, founders and members.

A series of crises unfolded in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st Century which combined to exacerbate already profound conditions of global economic inequality and poverty in the world's poorest countries. In 2007, the unsound lending practices that caused a collapse in the US housing market ushered in a broader economic crisis that reverberated throughout the global financial system. This economic shockwave had a global impact, triggering not just instability in other industrialized countries, but also in their developing world counterparts, also highlighting deficiencies in the current structures of global governance to protect the world's poorest and most disadvantaged.

This book offers answers to questions raised about the role of global governance in the attenuation and amelioration of world poverty and inequality. The contributors interrogate the role of systems of governance at a time of global economic crisis and continuing environmental degradation against a backdrop of acceleration in inequalities within and between communities and across the globe.

Evaluating how existing systems can be reformed or redesigned to be more effective at addressing issues of poverty and inequality and providing a comprehensive discussion of a wide range of global governance initiatives this work will be essential reading for students and scholars of global governance, international relations and international organizations.

The Round Table journal (now subtitled The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs) first appeared in 1910. The journal carried a number of articles recognised both by contemporaries and by historians as highly influential in the making of Commonwealth policy, including constitutional reform in India, the independence of southern Ireland, the League of Nations mandates system and the United Nations trusteeship system, British policy in East Asia, the building of the Anglo-American alliance, appeasement, decolonisation, and the transition to a new, multipolar Commonwealth.

This book brings together excerpts from some of the key articles published over the last one hundred years and features leading figures including;

• Lionel Curtis and John Dove on Ireland, leading to the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State,
• T.E. Lawrence on the Middle East, a key influence on post-1919 state creation in the Arab Middle East,
• Philip Kerr on India, galvanizing attempts at constitutional reform in British India.

This selection provides a unique commentary on imperial/Commonwealth and international affairs and makes available to a new generation of scholars and students some of the articles now acknowledged as key influences in the evolution of British and Commonwealth policies.

This collection of essays is intended as a companion volume to The Contemporary Commonwealth: An assessment 1965 - 2009, edited by James Mayall, marking the centenary of The Round Table.

A series of crises unfolded in the latter part of the first decade of the 21st Century which combined to exacerbate already profound conditions of global economic inequality and poverty in the world's poorest countries. In 2007, the unsound lending practices that caused a collapse in the US housing market ushered in a broader economic crisis that reverberated throughout the global financial system. This economic shockwave had a global impact, triggering not just instability in other industrialized countries, but also in their developing world counterparts, also highlighting deficiencies in the current structures of global governance to protect the world's poorest and most disadvantaged.

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This book offers answers to questions raised about the role of global governance in the attenuation and amelioration of world poverty and inequality. The contributors interrogate the role of systems of governance at a time of global economic crisis and continuing environmental degradation against a backdrop of acceleration in inequalities within and between communities and across the globe.

?

Evaluating how existing systems can be reformed or redesigned to be more effective at addressing issues of poverty and inequality and providing a comprehensive discussion of a wide range of global governance initiatives this work will be essential reading for students and scholars of global governance, international relations and international organizations.

This book is an outcome of the conference on 'The Future of NATO and Global Security,' in Brussels. It focused on classical issues of East-West relations, the two-way street in defense procurement, conventional military security, and nuclear issues-arms, doctrine, and arms control.

This book analyzes how, and under what conditions, African International Economic Organizations (IEO) have evolved, and what individual and collective contributions, if any, these African IEOs have had on Africa's socio-economic development.

Providing a comprehensive and accessible overview, the book covers the continent's main IEOs, The United Nations Economic Commission on Africa, The African Development Bank; and The New Partnership for Africa's Development as well as the five major Regional Economic Communities, including Economic Community of West African States, and Southern African Development Community.

Assessing the degree to which African IEO's have been able to chart their own course in coming up with their development agendas and priorities rather than following the lead of Global Institutions, this book:

• Provides a descriptive and analytical overview of the historical and contemporary development blueprints produced for Africa
• Clearly examines the contribution made by African economic institutions towards development
• Considers whether African economic institutions are building blocks or stumbling blocks in Africa's development
• Offers a detailed evaluation and critique of African IEOs

Enabling the reader to reach a deeper understanding of the challenges and potentials of development on the African continent, African Economic Institutions will be of interest to all students and scholars of African politics and development studies.

This volume addresses the normative legitimacy of the international order, asking how we can make sense of legitimacy claims of increasingly diverse global governance institutions and practices and how their legitimacy relates to and differs from state legitimacy. State legitimacy is a central concern of modern political thought but is inadequate when applied to institutions that differ from the state in type, level of governance, scope, and much else. We need a new, tailored approach to the legitimacy of institutions beyond the state, especially international and transnational institutions. Such an approach includes foundational questions: what does it mean for institutions to be legitimate that have radically different purposes, means, interests, capacities, constituents, and roles from states? And what standards do such institutions have to meet in order to count as legitimate? The contributions to this volume seek to advance the debate on these questions at both abstract and more concrete levels. They range from conceptual questions about the nature of legitimacy and international institutions, to rule of law, to the legitimacy of the UN Security Council, the International Criminal Court, and occupying military forces in the face of challenges specific to their nature and context. Together they demonstrate both the promise and challenges of theorizing legitimacy beyond the state. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

An extensive and unequalled one-volume guide covering some 1,900 international and regional entities, this title provides detailed and accurate information on a wide spectrum of international organizations from the World Health Organization to OPEC.

Fully revised and updated, this new edition includes essential background material as well as invaluable contact details to provide a conplete understanding of the role of international organizations in the framework of modern global politics.

New for this edition is an essay on the international economic system, its institutions and governance.

Features include

• introductory articles: An Introduction to International Organizations and The International System in the Early Twenty-first Century
• a chronology charting the historical development of international organizations
• texts of significant international charters, treaties and documents
• lists of key UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, plus information about peace-keeping activities
• biographical details of leading officials within international organizations
• information on each organization includes contact details, membership, leading officials, activities, finance, publications and subsidiary organizations
• an extensive index.

Since the end of the Cold War NATO has redefined its raison d etre, extending its membership, broadening its political goals and widening its zone of operation. It has also sought to enhance its co-operation with Russia, for example through the NATO-Russia Council, though moves here have coincided with factors which make co-operation more difficult, such as growing uncertainty about the transition to democracy in Russia, a feeling among some people in Russia that NATO enlargement and the simultaneous diminution of Russia s influence were related, and, more recently, Russia s attempts to reassert its influence over its neighbouring states. This book examines the current state of relations between NATO and Russia, examining a number of key areas, and assesses the prospects for future development. It concludes that all parties have a powerful interest in building and maintaining security, and that the growth of the zone of democracy holds out the best hope for solving some of Russia s most seminal security concerns.

This is a definitive and comprehensive history of international organizations from their very beginning at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 up to the present day, and provides the reader with nearly two centuries of world history seen from the perspective of international organizations. It covers the three main fields of international relations: security, economics and the humanitarian domain which often overlap in international organizations. As well as global and intercontinental organizations, the book also covers regional international organizations and international non-governmental organizations in all continents.

The book progresses chronologically but also provides a thematic and geographical coherence so that related developments can be discussed together. A series of detailed tables, figures, charts and information boxes explain the chronologies, structures and relationships of international organizations. There are biographies, histories and analysis of hundreds of international organizations.

This is an essential reference work with direct relevance to scholars in international relations, international political economy, international economics and business and security studies.

How legitimate are outcomes, outputs and impacts of global environmental regimes? Can non-state actors contribute to improve the output- and input-oriented legitimacy of global environmental governance? Helmut Breitmeier responds to these questions, balancing the volume with both theoretical and empirical chapters. The theoretical and conceptual chapters illustrate the relevance and meaning of legitimacy as well as the impact of non-state actors on environmental governance. They also describe various methodological issues involved with the coding of 23 environmental regimes. The empirical chapters are based on the findings of the International Regimes Database (IRD). They explore whether problem-solving in international regimes is effective and equitable and the influence of a regime's contribution to how states comply with international norms. These chapters also analyze whether non-state actors can improve the output- and input-oriented legitimacy of global governance systems.

This book is about the strategic importance of NATO-Europe and why Western Europe should continue to remain the primary geographic area of importance in U.S. national security planning. It argues that making fundamental changes in U.S. security commitment to Europe would not be in U.S. interests.

While clearly assessing the achievements, performance and responses of major global south institutions to global change, Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner shows how and why such arrangements are critical in the South's efforts to call the international community's attention to their concerns and to resolve their special problems. Focusing on a range of key areas to provide the reader with a well-rounded understanding of this important subject in international affairs, the book: offers a rationale for the institutional development in the global South elaborates on the scope of membership, structure, aims, and problems of such institutions assesses the utility of tri-continental political and economic organizations examines the history and activities of region-wide organizations evaluates the potential of sub-regional integration arrangements analyses the applicability of various theories, and makes suggestions with respect to the study of global South institutions. The lack of a comprehensive and accessible compilation of institutions of key importance to the global South in the post-war period, makes this book essential reading to students and scholars in the fields of in international organization, international politics, foreign policy, international development, and global south public policies.

While clearly assessing the achievements, performance and responses of major global south institutions to global change, Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner shows how and why such arrangements are critical in the South's efforts to call the international community's attention to their concerns and to resolve their special problems. Focusing on a range of key areas to provide the reader with a well-rounded understanding of this important subject in international affairs, the book: * offers a rationale for the institutional development in the global South * elaborates on the scope of membership, structure, aims, and problems of such institutions * assesses the utility of tri-continental political and economic organizations * examines the history and activities of region-wide organizations * evaluates the potential of sub-regional integration arrangements * analyses the applicability of various theories, and makes suggestions with respect to the study of global South institutions. The lack of a comprehensive and accessible compilation of institutions of key importance to the global South in the post-war period, makes this book essential reading to students and scholars in the fields of in international organization, international politics, foreign policy, international development, and global south public policies.

The Asia-Pacific is arguably the most important, but also the most complex and contested, region on the planet. Containing three of the world's largest economies and some of its most important strategic relationships, the region's capacity of regional elites to promote continuing economic development whilst simultaneously maintaining peace and stability will be one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century international order. Intuitively, we might expect regional institutions to play a major role in achieving this. Yet one of the most widely noted characteristics of the Asia-Pacific region has been its relatively modest levels of institutional development thus far. However, things are changing: as individual economies in the Asia-Pacific become more deeply integrated, there is a growing interest in developing and adding to the institutions that already exist. Institutions of the Asia-Pacific examines how this region is developing, and what role established organisations like APEC and new bodies like ASEAN Plus Three are playing in this process. An expert in the field, Mark Beeson introduces the contested nature of the very region itself - should it be the 'Asia-Pacific' or 'East Asia' to which we pay most attention and expect to see most institutional development. By placing these developments in historical context, he reveals why the very definition of the region remains unsettled and why the political, economic and strategic relations of this remarkably diverse region remain fraught and difficult to manage.

The Asia-Pacific is arguably the most important, but also the most complex and contested, region on the planet. Containing three of the world's largest economies and some of its most important strategic relationships, the region's capacity of regional elites to promote continuing economic development whilst simultaneously maintaining peace and stability will be one of the defining challenges of the twenty-first century international order. Intuitively, we might expect regional institutions to play a major role in achieving this. Yet one of the most widely noted characteristics of the Asia-Pacific region has been its relatively modest levels of institutional development thus far. However, things are changing: as individual economies in the Asia-Pacific become more deeply integrated, there is a growing interest in developing and adding to the institutions that already exist. Institutions of the Asia-Pacific examines how this region is developing, and what role established organisations like APEC and new bodies like ASEAN Plus Three are playing in this process. An expert in the field, Mark Beeson introduces the contested nature of the very region itself - should it be the 'Asia-Pacific' or 'East Asia' to which we pay most attention and expect to see most institutional development. By placing these developments in historical context, he reveals why the very definition of the region remains unsettled and why the political, economic and strategic relations of this remarkably diverse region remain fraught and difficult to manage.

Since the end of the Cold War NATO has redefined its raison d'etre, extending its membership, broadening its political goals and widening its zone of operation. It has also sought to enhance its co-operation with Russia, for example through the NATO-Russia Council, though moves here have coincided with factors which make co-operation more difficult, such as growing uncertainty about the transition to democracy in Russia, a feeling among some people in Russia that NATO enlargement and the simultaneous diminution of Russia's influence were related, and, more recently, Russia's attempts to reassert its influence over its neighbouring states. This book examines the current state of relations between NATO and Russia, examining a number of key areas, and assesses the prospects for future development. It concludes that all parties have a powerful interest in building and maintaining security, and that the growth of the zone of democracy holds out the best hope for solving some of Russia's most seminal security concerns.