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MSFS-565 International Organizations
Spring only
Vreeland, James
What are International Organizations (IOs) and what role do they play in world politics? In this course we will carefully examine various IOs, considering their historical origins, ostensible functions, the international and domestic political forces that impact their operations, and their effectiveness.
We will begin the course by addressing some overarching theoretical and methodological issues so that we have a core set of analytical tools we can apply to our study of specific IOs. From a theoretical perspective, we will consider various paradigms, such as realist, liberal, bureaucratic, and constructivist. From a methodological point of view, we will be concerned with questions of endogeneity, that is, separating the circumstances under which IOs take action from the inherent effects of their actions.
We will then delve into specific IOs. We begin with the International Financial Institutions (the IMF, World Bank, and regional development organizations). We then turn to international trade organizations (the GATT/WTO, NAFTA, CAFTA, MERCOSUR). Next we turn to the various arms of the United Nations (the General Assembly, the UN development agencies, the Security Council, and Peace Keeping Operations). We subsequently analyze security organizations, notably the expansion of NATO. Finally, we turn to the European Union.
As we examine each institution, we will keep several questions in mind: Does this international organization represent anything more than the interests of its most powerful members? How are the foreign policy goals of its most powerful members pursued - /or not/? What role do domestic politics play when countries interact with the international organizations? How does the pursuit of the private incentives of individuals working in IOs influence IO effectiveness? What ideas and norms in international politics influenced the creation of the various IOs and what impact have the IOs in turn had on international ideas and norms?
In short, we are concerned with the political economy, broadly conceived, of international organizations. As in other courses in political economy, essentially we will be grappling with centralized versus decentralized mechanisms of allocation, where the two mechanisms often interact. The various centralized and decentralized mechanisms allocation in specific countries have effects across borders -- for example, there are economic, security, and environmental externalities.
IOs thus represent answers to failures of decentralized mechanisms of allocation, or, simply put, answers to international market failures. IOs are thus supranational centralized allocation mechanisms, which may or may not effectively achieve their ostensible goals. When evaluating whether these centralized mechanisms of allocation achieve their intended goals, it will be important to consider not just their inherent effects, but also an important counterfactual: what the world would be like in their absence? Note, the course makes no a priori judgements about the value of IOs, and students are encouraged to think critically about the constellation of IOs in the world. The course requires only that students consider both centralized and decentralized mechanisms of allocation as viable solutions to international problems - there is no ideological preference for one approach over the other.
The challenges of trying to understand the interests, institutions, and information of actors in an international context are great, and much remains to be learned. The course is designed not just to familiarize students with IOs, but also to stimulate their curiosity about questions that really have yet to be answered satisfactorily. An important goal of the course is also the equip students with the analytical tools required to address such questions.
Credits: 3
Prerequisites: None
Course syllabi
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Spring '10:
Vreeland J
(web site, description)
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