The concept of One World and World Unity has been the ultimate desire and ambition of all the people living in the different parts of the Earth. This vision, however challenging; has from way back kept people of different countries together. The book, Swords into Plowshares [1] ventures into the question of how much this attempt is possible and advantageous to the world community at large to execute.
This process involves the bringing together of different states having unique structures and characteristics thereby increasing the ramifications in relations amongst the states. This has unfolded the concept of International Organization whose function basically is to dispose of the complexities emerging out of these accords. The development of International Organization being a process can be compared to that of the existence of man on this Earth. Both have a gradual interminable growth. However, the uniqueness of these Organizations can be attributed to their distinct structure, ambitions, and sizes.
For the process of understanding the development of International Organizations, it can be analyzed in different ways. The fundamental focus is on the legal approach wherein the multilateral treaties which form the foundation of the understanding of the process of these organizations provides a constitutional and structural framework. However, this approach can not solely expound what these organizations are in toto. Therefore, here the historical approach comes in perspective, as the present and future of these organizations cannot be completely scrutinized without delving into their past. The trends in the past form the justification for the foundation and fall of these organizations, as in the case of the League of Nations. The inquiry into the circumstances that led to its decline is indispensable to avoid the damages which might be caused to the United Nations in the course of time.
The structural determination further limits the knowledge of the organizations, as theoretically; the process of International Organization is not an isolated concept. It has a thorough association with other social sciences wherein politics plays a pivotal role in its analysis. The political relations between states, the trends in politics across nations, the ideologies at different period and the technological development further contribute significantly to the understanding of the development of these organizations en masse. Legal structure and the documents which constitute the basis of these organizations cannot be ignored in this assessment but the sole study of them to infer these can have a detrimental effect on the future of the IOs on a grand scale.
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After the examination of the approaches of IO, one might want to go into the dualistic nature which the Organization carries. The two approaches however contradictory in nature, have one common characteristic on which they differ: the concept of sovereignty. The first approach of International Organization respects the sovereignty of the nation states thereby promoting their domestic functioning. In this way, it provides an improved mechanism, amongst the nations for negotiations and solving critical issues which might crop up with time through the assistance of different International Organizations.
On the other hand, the other concept directs towards the theory of a world government by eliminating the sovereignty of the nation out rightly. This new system which shall materialize by leaving behind the domestic boundaries indicates that the International Organization are inadequate in solving the problems cropping up amongst the nations. These disregards the capabilities of the IO along with the concept of sovereignty of the states thereby getting discerned by most statesmen.
This leads us to the question of becoming of the International Organization. It can be inspected by two approaches relating to how IOs actually function. The first one is the seed approach wherein the process of IO is considered to be organic. It draws its inspiration from the historical perspective of the study of IO and treats the development of the organization as a fixed and determined pattern. On the other hand, the building approach molds the process of organization based on what its members want over the years. It takes into account the political trends of the society which allow the organization to be made and remade over the years. The latter theory, being pragmatic in character is favored by most students of International Organization because it allows a room for voluntaristic change within the organizational structure.
Thus, the International Organization cannot be fully assessed without gauging into International Politics. Still it does not guarantee the success of IO in the future. Being a complex phenomenon, which considers that man is at liberty, chances are that International Organization might fail in the future. Nevertheless, this blend of realism and idealism is continuously aiming, regardless of the pessimism going around its development, to achieve a harmonious construction among the peoples of the world.
REFERENCES
[1] Claude Jr, I. L. (1963). Swords into plowshares: the problems and progress of international organization, New York: Random House.
BY VASUNDHARA SINGH | M.PHIL RESEARCH SCHOLAR, JNU | LL.M. NUJS, KOLKATA