International Organisations: Global and Local

After almost two decades, Samuel Huntington’s depiction of a new global order has clashed head-on with the long-held neo-realist belief that the world is governed by a condition of anarchy. Conflict and dislocation, social protest and poverty borne out of a series of profound economic and political blunders, have come to question the ability of international organizations (IOs) to mitigate national and regional crises.

This course questions the global order as it is. How to respond to present challenges of scarce resource allocation, unfair distribution of power and wealth, and an ingrained imbalance between large and small states? The answer is not in doing away with international organizations. Without them, small states will be left without a voice in international affairs. Instead, this course deliberates necessary reforms, so that IOs can better represent the aggregate interests of their members in the future.

Lectures in this course focus on several IOs in turn in order to approach in depth their historical, institutional and political foundations. Key policies will be explored in order to expose those global solutions that best respond to regional problems.

The International Organisations course is a third-year course that forms part of either the Politics and IR undergraduate major or minor at the University. The University takes a more personal approach to education, teaching students through small group seminars and one-to-one tutorials to ensure the best possible learning environment and academic achievement. Politics and IR can be combined either as a major or minor with any of Art History, Creative Writing, Economics, English, History, Philosophy, or Law at the University.