International organization in retrospect and prospect

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

This essay starts with questions about the future of international organizations. These questions have to do with the progress, the principles and ideals, the services and the leaders of these organizations.
According to the chapter, the answer to the questions will help us placing IO into a future perspective.

SOURCES OF DISCOURAGEMENTEven though IO have made many efforts to destroy barriers among people all around the world, which is their main purpose, the progress they have so far is not enough, because cleavages have appeared in nations in modern history more than ever.
There are 190 political units all around the world. People who live in this units share a common sense of value. In spite of certain codes (religious,ethical, moral, etc) the hierarchy gives priority to divisiveness, not unity. Today rivalry is bigger than cooperation, and rivalry between nations is followed by feelings like fear, suspicion and the search of self-interests.
Today, national goals are focused in having an economic gain, or the obtaining of an advantage, rather than mutual cooperation.

The competition of ideologies in EasternEurope is something still in force. For some political organizations, some terms like welfare and freedom are still not considered as basic concepts in society.
Cooperation among competing political units is limited because of the differences in perspectives.

Some issues, like economic interests and certain movements toward economic unity, do not permit to continue in the path for cooperationand solidarity even in the European Community, which is considered as the model for economic unions.

Personal well-being can be compared with the point in the national economic system in the point that foreign economic activities can mean prosperity in jobs, prices, markets, and profits.

When there is a domination in economic cooperation, we are talking of economic rivalry. In thearrangements that have to do with trade and tariff, the first priorities that must be covered are the interests of the working, management and entrepreneurial population, that is how personal interests are related to national interest.

Economic interests also serve as a point for some differences between developed nations and poor nations, and it was The United Nations Conference on Trade and Developmentwhich took the demands of these undeveloped nations.
The countries in the Conference expressed their frustration for the lack of economic progress through resolutions that state some themes that were constantly spoken.

While many solutions are demanded and science and technology are shrinking global dimensions, national leaders still have the idea of emphasizing parochial rather thanuniversal viewpoints.

The amount of conflicts and wars that take place in many parts of the world is alarming, and so the frequency. In spite of the actions that United Nations have take, like the destruction of weapons or the apprehensions , the amount of wars is still big, which have made UN unable to bring under control.

In some cases, the intervention of United Nations have helped, such as theevents on Middle East. But in other cases, UN has been unable to resolve conflicts, like in Czechoslovakia, Vietnam, Nicaragua and Bosnia.

SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS

In spite of the bad image of a divided world, there is a more optimistic view for IO, which talks about the contributions to world peace and welfare that must be part of IO.

We must not expect a high degree in the performance ofIO because all human institutions are imperfect, also, the degrees of harmony and justice will be relative, this because we are making the search in an interdependent and competitive international system.

In this summary we must look or try to find those elements in the performance of IO that possibly have made a difference to all that countries that suffer hunger, poverty, illiteracy, etc....