The Role of IGOs in Global Civil Society
IGOs are made up of member governments, and they may be global, regional, or issue focused. An IGO focusses on goals and policies aligned with its mission. In this assignment, you will examine IGOs, their formation, their functions, their differences from NGOs, and their effectiveness.
Instructions
Write a 3 page paper about the following:
1. Define IGOs and NGOs. Compare their roles in global civil society.
2. Explain why IGOs that are formed by treaties are more advantageous and effective than a grouping of sovereign nations. Provide examples.
3. IGOs also serve several basic functions that enhance cooperation. Choose two of the following IGOs and discuss their functions. Explore their role in international policymaking.
o United Nations.
o Organization of American States.
o North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
o World Health Organization.
4. Describe three examples where IGOs have become increasingly prominent. Include examples such as facilitating conflict resolution between states, handling human rights violations, and dealing with impossible dilemmas where there is no positive outcome or no solution within conflicting states.
Sample Solution
Global governance entails an ecosystem of formal and informal institutions. It is formally the domain and responsibility of sovereign nation states, and traditionally studied with a microscope on national interest and state power. Non-sovereign nations and other organizations and associations lack full international legal personality. They are in many ways marginal to central decision-making, diplomacy and negotiation in formal intergovernmental organizations (IGOs). But global governance is much bigger than formal IGOs, and indeed is increasingly composed of multi-stakeholder, complex governance institutions and informal “soft law” agreements. Even within the confines of formal IGO structures, where sovereign nation-states negotiate and decide, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) play an important role.
