with a veto over any decision by the Council) may have the merit of
political realism, in that the UN cannot be expected to act effectively
without Great Power agreement. Alas, until the 1990s, the Cold War
meant virtually all effective action by the UN was stillborn. Even now
with apparently greater international consensus, whilst humani-
tarian action in the former Yugoslavia, Liberia and the Congo has
been possible, the UN is handicapped by the lack of effective
executive apparatus and in 2003 splits in the Security Council once
more prevented effective action against Iraq. Long delays in taking
humanitarian action in the Darfur region of the Sudan were
accounted for partly by UN weakness against any recalcitrant
sovereign state and partly by Chinese oil interests.
However, focusing on major political decisions at the summit
level of international organisations may well be a misleading guide
to their importance and potential. The examples of NATO, the
European Union (EU) and OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum
Exporting Countries) suggest that, when international organisations
serve what is seen as a clear and necessary purpose, genuine and
effective multinational co-operation is possible. These organisations
are of considerable interest in that they have exercised powers that
are commonly seen as fundamental activities of ‘sovereign states’ on
a collective basis.
Another example of the way international bodies are working
effectively in the modern world is to consider such obscure bodies as
the International Standards Organisation (ISO) or the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU). Bodies like these hammer out
essential technical agreements which enable telephones across the
world to operate as one vast international network, enable computer
manufacturers on opposite sides of the globe to manufacture equip-
ment that will work together, and agree on common scientific units in
which new discoveries can be expressed.Multinational enterprises and ‘globalisation’
The importance of multinational enterprises in the modern world is
difficult to overestimate. Some of these firms have a greater financial
turnover than the gross national income (GNI) of a medium-size
state (see Table 2.1). Thus Malaysia has roughly the same size
‘economy’ as the major German insurance company Allianz, whilst42 SYSTEMS