as international organization, as both principle and practice, has come under
increasing challenge in the late twentieth and early twenty-Wrst century, this has
been no deterrent to the transformation of existing organizations or the emergence
of new ones (especially at the regional level).
Examples of transformation are the birth of the WTO out of GATT in 1995 and
the African Union from the OAU in 2002. Dramatic developments at a regional
level are to be found in East Asia in the early years of the twenty-Wrst century. Even
older organizations that, to all intents and purposes, have outlived their remits
continue to exist. Notable here are the (former British) Commonwealth and its
weaker facsimilela Francophonie. In addition, NATO still functions vigorously in a
range of areas long after its initial rationale of resisting Soviet expansion in Europe
has passed. Such organizations survive by a process of reinvention. NATO has
moved to a broader deWnition of security in keeping with the evolution of the
twenty-Wrst-century war on global terrorism. The Commonwealth reaYrmed its
value in the 1991 Harare declaration by adopting a stronger ‘‘development’’
oriented mission enhancing best practice in the pursuit of good governance.
- 2 ClassiWcation
Organizations can be transnational and/or cross-regional; they can be explicitly
built around the provisions to be found in Chapters VI, VII, and IX of the UN
charter; some are simply sui generis. 1 Many international organizations have
overlapping agendas and competencies. Scholarly analysis has tended to make
general judgments based on membership and the degree of integration of an
organization, functional purpose and policy area, and by structure and legal status.
2.2.1 Scope of Membership and Degree of Integration
Here we can identify: (a) global multilateral organizations—with three or more
members—notably the UN but also the major IEIs and (b) regional multilateral
organizations—again with three or more members but within speciWc geographical
containers: bodies such as the EU, Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the African Union (AU), and Mercosur. A diVerence between these
groupings is the degree of integration they have achieved. The EU, in contrast to
others, has the ability to take decisions and make policy that can be binding
not only on its member states and but also directly on sub-state public and
1 This chapter is not a catalog of international organizations. A comprehensive survey is to be
found in theYearbook of International Organisationspublished annually by the Union of International
Associations found at http://www.uia.org. See also Archer 2001 and Schiavone 2001.
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