Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen

The Evolution of the UN System and IO-Theory

by

Matthias Mißler

Contents

I. Introduction 4

II. Predecessors and the history of the UN-System 5

a) The Hague Peace Conferences 5
b) The League of Nations 5
c) The genesis of the United Nations 7
a) The United Nations during the cold war (1945 – 1954) 8
b) The period between 1955 and 1963 9
c) The third part between 1964 and 1973 9
d) The fourth decade from 1974 – 1986 10
e) The Time of Change 1987 10
d) The differences between the LN’s and the UN 11

III. Theories of International Organizations 12

1.) Definition of IOs 12
2.) Schools of thought and its basic assumptions 13

a) Neo Realism 13
b) Neo-institutionalism 14
c) Game theory 15

ca) Stag Hunt 16
cb) Battle of Sexes 16
cc) Prisoner’s Dilemma 16

d) Social Constructivism 17

3) Role and function of IOs 18

a) Role of IOs 18

aa) Instrument 18
ab) Arena 18
ac) Actor 18

b) Function of IOs 19

ba) Articulation and aggregation 19
bb) Norms 19
bc) Recruitment 19
bd) Socialization 19
be) Rule making 20
bf) Rule application 20
bg) Rule adjudication 20
bh) Information 20
bi) Operations 20

IV. Case studies on choosen examples 21

1) The Korean War 21

a) Neo Realism 21

aa) hypothesis 21
ab) result 21

2) Racial discrimination 22

a) Social Constructivism 22
aa) hypothesis 22
ab) result 22

3) The former Yugoslavia 23

a) Neo-Institutionalism 23

aa) hypothesis 23
ab) result 23

V. Conclusion 24

VI. Bibliography 25

I. Introduction

The history of international relations, which is dominated by competition of states, was impressed by the overcoming of this structure. There were several philosophers like Niccolò Machiavelli, Immanuel Kant and Jürgen Habermas who were engaged in answering the basic question about how states could cooperate and how they could solve their conflicts.¹ International organizations (IOs) are one response to the growing tension in world society between the process of integration and the desire for separation. The Industrial Revolution, the creation and integration of the world economy and at the same time the movement of ideas and people, as well as that of goods and services were the basics for the idea of globalisation. There was also a growth of nationalism, particularly strong in eighteenth- and nineteenthcentury Europe. Subjects became citizens, and there was a tendency to a sharper demarcation of identities based on language, religion and ethnicity. The growth of IOs is a reflection of the spirit of the times of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The United Nations Organization is the second try to order the international system and to minimise the “perils of anarchy.”² It’s the second try to trust in an organization for securing the “peace of the world” by the people of the world, after the League of Nations. After the Second World War, the demand of governance in world affairs was growing. The UN are a product of rising interdependencies among the states in the international system.

IOs are the operative objects in this essay. In the first part of this essay, I will provide some basic historical information, which gives a better understanding of the circumstances of the evolution of the United Nations System. After a definition of IOs, I will analyse the United Nations System, its function as an IO, by giving examples of the history of the UN. In this essay I will sketch, firstly, why IOs will be created. Secondly, I want to investigate if IOs matter. Thirdly, I will subject to closer scrutiny how the action of IOs do differ between the different issue areas. By answering these questions, I will deal with the theories on the current scientific debate. Coming from these theories, I will develop hypotheses and apply them to some cases exemplary for the most important historical periods.

II. Predecessors and the history of the UN-System

1) The Hague Peace Conferences

The predecessors of the UN were the Hague Peace Conferences (HPC) and the League of Nations (LNs). The First HPC in July 1899 was convened by the Russian Czar Nicholas II to discuss limitation of arms and peaceful methods to settle international disputes. The second conference was in 1907. The main results were the “Haager Landkriegsordnung” and the installation of an arbitration court.³ But considering the challenges of the First World War the HPCs failed. The problem was that it lacked an effective executive police power as prescribed by President Theodore Roosevelt.

2) The League of Nations

During the time of the First World War, there was a process of forming an IO for peace among the “big three” (USA, GB, UdSSR). The first meeting of this IO, called the LNs, took place in 1916 in Washington D.C.. The state representatives also wanted to create a new, permanent world organization that would deal with the problem of peace and security and with economic and social questions. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was the leading figure for the evolution of the LNs. Wilson formulated the war aims and peace suggestions of the United States and presented them before the Congress of the United States on January 1918 as his famous "14 Points". His major aim was a peaceful world that is safe for self-governing nations. In conclusion, he demanded in his 14th point: “open covenants of peace, openly arrived at” and no secret treaties, the free navigation of the seas outside territorial waters, equality of trade and removal of economic barriers and “adequate guarantees given and taken that national armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with domestic safety.” The last point he stressed was the concrete wish for an IO to maintain peace constructed by international law.

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1 Czempiel, Ernst-Otto: Friedensstrategien. Eine systematische Darstellung außenpolitischer Theorien von Machiavelli bis Madariaga, Opladen, 1998. p.15

2 Gareis, Sven Bernhard/ Varwick, Johannes: Die Vereinten Nationen. Aufgaben, Instrumente und Reformen, Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2002. p.13

3 Rittberger, Volker/Zangel, Bernhard: Internationale Organisationen – Politik und Geschichte: Europäische und weltweite zwischenstaatliche Zusammenschlüsse, 3. Edition, Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 2003. p.52