International Institutions

By Eman M. Elshaikh

After World War II, many nations around the world thought, “Okay, enough
is enough!” International institutions with long-term plans were created
with the goal of making a healthier, fairer, more stable and peaceful world.

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International Institutions
Eman M. Elshaikh

Introduction
After the destruction of the Second World War and the hardships caused by the Great Depression (1929-1939),
many nations of the world faced challenges. Leaders looked for solutions to global conflict, poverty, injustice and
instability. Intergovernmental groups like the League of Nations (1920-1946) had tried and failed to promote peace
and economic security. So, world leaders came together to think of a new approach.

Their ideas led to the creation of several new institutions. An institution is an organized social structure that tends
to be complex and long-lasting. Institutions affect how communities are organized by influencing behavior, customs,
and laws. In this case, leaders wanted to create institutions that would help communities or networks of people.
These institutions would work toward particular social, political, or economic goals.

The new institutions formed at the end of the Second World War were political, economic, and even non-
governmental. But as you’ll see, the distinction between these isn’t always very neat. As we discuss these world
institutions, we’ll consider how effective they were at influencing people’s lives. How did the world change as a
result of these new institutions?

A world government? The development of political institutions

The League of Nations, formed in 1918, had been
intended to prevent another world war. But in 1943, at
the height of World War II, it had obviously failed. Global
leaders knew they needed a new institution that could
carry out similar goals but in a different way. So in 1945
they formed the United Nations (UN).

Headquartered in New York, the United Nations was

designed to provide what the League of Nations had
not: collective security. This basically means that all
members (meaning nations, not individuals) have a
duty to come together as an international community
and resist aggression. Ideally, this means preventing
aggression in the first place. But the United Nations
does have some tools for dealing with aggression and
conflict if they occur. One of these tools is the United
Nation’s judicial arm, which deals with legal issues.
This judicial arm is called the International Court of
Justice (ICJ) headquartered in the Hague, a city in the Emblem of the United Nations. By Spiff~enwiki, public domain.
Netherlands. The Court’s role is to resolve disputes
between member states1 and to advise the United
Nations’ various agencies.

The United Nations has also created measures for protecting global health and human rights. Perhaps the best
example of this is the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It is a set of standards for human rights,
the treatment of women and children, and labor. Another example was the UN’s creation, in 1984, of a special
agency called the World Health Organization (WHO). This agency’s goal is to ensure public health globally.

1 A state is any region with its own government, while a nation has that and a population who unified in many ways, i.e. culturally, socially,
economically, ancestrally, etc.
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Eman M. Elshaikh

The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue. Public domain.

So, the UN clearly serves many different functions, all aimed at a better, healthier, fairer, and more peaceful
world. This has led some to describe the UN as a “world government” that controls an international community.
But it functions quite differently from a government. The United Nations is not like a sovereign nation that can
punish its citizens. Instead, it must influence its member states through treaties, monitoring, special procedures,
and commissions.

These are definitely impressive aims, but has the United

Nations met these goals? The language of rights that it
sponsored has certainly been influential, shifting how
people think about individuals, citizens, and states.
Though the United Nations isn’t always able to enforce
humanitarian standards, these standards seem to have
affected people’s beliefs and behaviors.

Has the United Nations eliminated conflict and human

rights abuses? Absolutely not. Over half a century after
the United Nations was formed, there are still many
violent conflicts and human rights abuses. But we have
to look at the evidence and think about the scale of the
conflicts. Does the evidence show an overall reduction
of violence? Have human rights abuses increased The World Health Organization flag. By WHO, public domain.
or decreased over the decades? And for whom have
these measures been most effective? To answer these
questions, we can consider evidence like human rights reports, changes in population, and mortality rates. We know
the shifts are occurring, but it’s a lot trickier to figure out what’s causing them.
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Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
By Franklin D Roosevelt Library, public domain.

Globalizing trade: the economic institutions

The simple fact that the United Nation was formed shows that countries were really concerned about reducing
violent conflict after the end of World War II. But the violence of war wasn’t the only concern. Many leaders were
also worried about economic instability and poverty. After the Great Depression, most world economies were still
struggling. Even before the war ended in 1944, some leaders met in the United States to address this problem. Their
goal was to think of policies for regulating the global economy. They wanted to prevent the ups and downs of the
interwar period and ensure stable currencies.

Out of these discussions, two crucial institutions were formed. The first was the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The second was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which later became the World Bank.
The original goals of these institutions were to help control the destructive ups and downs of global markets. They
were created to ensure that the world economy was growing in a balanced way.

The original goals of the IMF and the World Bank were protecting employment and standards of living. They also
wanted to make sure trade was balanced and not dominated by specific countries. Both institutions therefore invested
in helping member countries develop their resources and productive powers. The IMF’s written mission reflected this,
with its emphasis on international cooperation, balanced growth of international trade, and stability. Its initial goals
were largely focused on regulation. The World Bank had a slightly different focus: reconstruction and development.

Working together, the idea was that they would help member states share risk, resources, and information. This
was meant to be non-political. Each state’s voting power was aligned to its economic contribution. This non-
political style was important, because member states wanted to avoid the nationalist policies that had made the
Great Depression so devastating. Instead, these institutions worked by creating more cooperation. The IMF, for
example, gave loans to developing countries to cover trade deficits (shortages). The World Bank made massive
investments in the form of debt relief and reconstruction projects, particularly in Europe.

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Eman M. Elshaikh

Those were the original goals of these two organizations. But over time, this changed. The goal became opening up
markets around the world, which is called economic liberalization. The idea is that markets would be less regulated,
allowing networks of exchange to operate more freely. The international institution that most pushed for economic
liberalization is the World Trade Organization (WTO), which was founded in 1995.

How did these institutions change the world? Over several decades, the global markets did in fact become
increasingly connected into broad networks. This allowed money and investment to move a lot more easily. These
institutions also played crucial roles in managing financial crises and economic transitions. For example, they
encouraged centrally-planned economies from the former Soviet Union to move toward open markets.

Non-Governmental Institutions
Another type of institution that attempts to make change at the global level are international non-governmental
organizations (INGOs). From as early as the nineteenth century, organizations like the International Committee of
the Red Cross and Oxfam International have worked to tackle global health problems and poverty. More recently,
human rights advocacy organizations, like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have had a major
effect on how people understand their role in the world. These organizations have allowed many more people see
themselves as global citizens participating in an international community. Environmental activist organizations like
Greenpeace have had a similar effect. That’s because these groups have increasingly used media campaigns to
raise awareness. These campaigns promote a feeling of global responsibility.

This belief in the importance of common action highlights the ways these institutions shape people’s communities.
When you think about it, this is a powerful—and effective—belief. INGOs2 like Amnesty International have been
effective by building upon the United Nations’ human rights efforts. They’ve called attention to abuses and pushed
for violent acts like rape to be defined as war crimes. They also helped mobilize world opinion against things like
nuclear testing and the racist system of Apartheid in South Africa.

How did they accomplish this? By changing world opinion. And that’s no small thing. It creates a powerful feeling of
connectedness and shared responsibility. It’s so powerful that American President Dwight Eisenhower once said,
when asked to continue nuclear testing, “the new thermo-nuclear weapons are tremendously powerful; however,
they are not… as powerful as is world opinion today in obliging the United States to follow certain lines of policy.”

Some conclusions
The world is now connected in unprecedented ways because of international political and economic institutions and
global NGOs. They’ve created broader, more fluid networks. And they’ve also created greater, more encompassing
senses of community.

But these connections have not always been even. The effects have been partial, inconsistent, short-lived, or
even negative in some cases. They haven’t always managed to prevent crises. Many people get left behind. Also,
in pushing economic liberalization, these institutions have resulted in fewer social protections. In many cases, in
order to receive debt relief, loans, or other investment, countries have been forced to reduce social protections like
healthcare. Collectively, these changes have created more uniformity on a global scale—for better or for worse.

2 When a non-governmental institution does not deal with international issues, it’s just called NGO. But it’s worth noting that people very often say
NGO when they are actually talking about INGO’s like the Red Cross and Amnesty International.
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Sources
“Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund -- 2016 Edition.” Accessed March 4, 2019. https://www.imf.org/
external/pubs/ft/aa/index.htm.
“Charter of the United Nations,” June 17, 2015. http://www.un.org/en/sections/un-charter/chapter-i/index.html.
“IBRD Articles of Agreement.” Text/HTML. World Bank. Accessed March 4, 2019. http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/articles-
of-agreement/ibrd-articles-of-agreement.
Nester, William R. Globalization: A Short History of the Modern World. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Stearns, Peter N. Globalization in World History. London; New York: Routledge, 2010.
Woods, Ngaire. The Globalizers: The IMF, the World Bank, and Their Borrowers. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 2006.

Eman M. Elshaikh
The author of this article is Eman M. Elshaikh. She is a writer, researcher, and teacher who has taught K-12 and
undergraduates in the United States and in the Middle East. She teaches writing at the University of Chicago, where she also
completed her master’s in social sciences and is currently pursuing her PhD. She was previously a World History Fellow at
Khan Academy, where she worked closely with the College Board to develop curriculum for AP World History.

Image credits
Cover: 6/28/1945-San Francisco, CA-: After nine weeks of study and debate, the United Nations Conference on International
Organization hears President Harry S. Truman deliver the closing address at the last session of the conference. An honor guard
of American servicemen and servicewomen stands in the background, before the flags of the United Nations. © Bettmann/
Getty Images
Emblem of the United Nations. By Spiff~enwiki, public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#/media/
File:Emblem_of_the_United_Nations.svg
The UN in 1945: founding members in light blue, protectorates and territories of the founding members in dark blue. Public
domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations#/media/File:United_Nations_Member_States-1945.png
The World Health Organization flag. By WHO, public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_WHO.svg#/media/
File:Flag_of_WHO.svg
Eleanor Roosevelt with the Spanish language version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By Franklin D
Roosevelt Library, public domain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Declaration_of_Human_Rights#/media/
File:EleanorRooseveltHumanRights.png

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