International organization

Abstract

It has often been argued that the study of IR is the study of war (q.v.) and of peace (q.v.). The subject matter of this chapter, International Organization (IO), has often been claimed by those who are advocates of peace, or at least a ‘cure’ for war, implicitly or explicitly. The fi eld of IO is vast, so we have decided to concentrate on where we might be said to have most ‘added value’ for a book like this, by concentrating both on the two main IOs of the last hundred years, the League of Nations (LON) and the United Nations (UN), and in particular the period up to the end of the 1950s. Very good surveys of the period beyond that can be found, and of course there is a vast theoretical debate within IR about the meaning and signifi cance of IO, which we will also leave for others, with the exception of the theoretical debate that existed until the 1960s. What we aim to do here is to lay out the stall of (some of ) the historical literature that is least likely to have been presented to IR students, and even those taking courses in IO. This chapter is again intended to provide the backdrop to what most IR courses already do well.

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