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International Organisations in a Contested World Order

Module description

This module gives you a first encounter with international organizations and institutions, providing factual information and offering a theoretical toolbox to analyse them. While no pre-requisite or co-requisite modules are required, this modules is recommended for students willing to build a strong curriculum on the classic issues of International Relations.

At the 2020 horizon, the range of global challenges facing us has seemingly never been so wide, and their potential implications so profound: from climate change to trade and development, from terrorism to economic inequalities, from the worldwide “democratic recession” to the corrosion of the “chemical weapons taboo”, the list is long and anxiety high. Eyes – and hopes – are therefore turning to international institutions and organizations, which are precisely supposed to exist to foster cooperation, find solutions and ensure their implementation.

Yet should we really pay attention to, and place hopes in IOs? With nationalism on the rise across the globe, do they still matter in international politics (have they ever)? With accusations of serving the rich/powerful and further cementing a contested colonial legacy, ar they really part of the solution to our most enduring problems? Are they really the stable entities with their own agency and agenda that we often think of (“the EU”, “the UN”, etc.) or are they dispensable artefacts that merely crystallize temporary balances of power? This module will answer these and other similar questions, deploying the most relevant theoretical tools to understand the most important puzzles related to IOs: their origins, their structuration, their efficiency and impact, the mechanisms sustaining them or undermining them, etc. A range of relevant cases will be used to illustrate these discussions.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module has two main aims:

1. Enrich your knowledge about international organizations, their structures and dynamics.
2. Provide you with a theoretical toolbox that enables you to better understand the evolution of international organizations and the challenges they face, both in general and in today’s global politics.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. accurately describe the structure, history, and main organizational dynamics of a range of international organizations.
• 2. demonstrate ability to identify, understand and explain the main theoretical approaches to international cooperation and organization.
• 3. critically use knowledge of both IO’s characteristics and theories of IOs to evaluate the situation of a range of international organizations in today’s international politics, and independently formulate a diagnosis of the challenges they face as well as a prognosis for the years ahead.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. critically analyse the major characteristics and evolutions of today’s international politics.
• 5. situate particular political cases and situations within broader international context, and to highlight the dynamics uniting general trends and specific cases

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task.
• 7. write an original analysis of a complex political issue in clear yet precise language, using relevant sources.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

• We will study key theoretical approaches to international organizations and institutions: the neo-neo debate, functionalism, constructivism, international practice theory, and critical approaches drawing on both postcolonial and neo-Marxist thought.
• We will identify the main dynamics favouring or threatening international institutions and organizations, as well as those driving their transformations.
• We will present the challenges faced by international organizations in today’s – and tomorrow’s – international politics.
• We will present a series of important international organizations, highlight their structures and working dynamics, and analyse them through the lenses of the theories and challenges previously discussed.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

The module’s reading list will combine handbook chapters and important papers in the history of research on international organization. The following handbooks constitute a good starting point:

• Hurd I. (2018) International Organizations. Politics, Law, Practice. Cambridge: CUP.
• Katz Cogan J., Hurd I., Johnstone I., eds. (2016) The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Reinalda B. (2013) Routledge Handbook of International Organization. London: Routledge.
• Schiavone G. (2008) International Organizations: A Dictionary and Directory. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Websites of the international organizations analyzed in the module.
• Websites and blogs on international relations, such as TheoryTalks.
• Documentaries and podcasts on the international organizations analyzed in the module.

Key words search

International organizations, international institutions, cooperation, international relations, NATO, EU, Bretton Woods