US Participation in International Organizations



Focus Question:  How does the United States participate in international and transnational organizations?

 


Topics on the Page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go here for a list of International Organization Membership of the United States

 

   Cross-Links

 

AP United States History Key Concept 9.3:  Post Cold War American Foreign Policy

 

International Governmental and Nongovernmental Organizations

 

The Creation of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

 

 

 

The United Nations

external image UN_General_Assembly.jpg

 

 

The United Nations was formed was on October 24, 1945, to replace the League of Nations which had failed to prevent World War II.

The United Nations is a global organization of sovereign States (not dependent upon, or subject to, another power) which voluntarily join the UN to work for world peace and security.

The United Nations is a forum for nearly all the nations of the world and its peacekeepers play a central role in reducing international tensions and conflicts.

 

 

 

 

 

The UN at a Glance from the United Nations website provides an overview of the organization.

 

Worldometer provides a list of members states in the United Nation and when did each member states joined the organization.

 

The Secretary-General of the United Nations


Biography for Antonio Guterres, current Secretary-General of the United Nations

Biography for Ban Ki-moon, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Click here for his homepage.

 

Who Is and Has Been Secretary-General of the United Nations


UN Security Council Profile from the BBC

external image Red_apple.jpg The United Nations and Reform: Background, Activities and Critical Analysis

Read about the day the US Senate approved US participation in the UN here

 

Displaced women and children in Mali, 2012
Displaced women and children in Mali, 2012

 

 

Stop Disasters! A Disaster Simulation Game from the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction

 


"Finding the Hidden UN," Brian Urquhart, The New York Review of Books, May 27, 2010 (pp. 26-28). Key points from his article include:

 

 

 



Click here for an overview of the role the United States played in the founding of the United Nations from the U.S. State Department.

Click here for an overview geared toward children.

See also What's Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It, Thomas G. Weiss (Polity, 2008).

 

 The United Nations began with 51 member states and an annual budget of $19m. Now in its seventh decade, the UN has 193 member nations and spends over $40 billion a year. How did the UN get so big? Has it stayed true to its founding principles of spreading human rights, social progress and upholding international justice?

 

 


Click here to view a 1940s short animated film about the United Nations titled "Another Chance."

 

 Click here to view an overview video about how the United Nations works from RMIT University.

 

Click here to view an overview video about how the United Nations Works from NowThis. (A more updated version)

 

United Nations experts condemn racial terror in United States

 



The Image below shows the 62nd General Assembly of the United Nations begins on September 25, 2007.

According to tradition since the 1970's, a Brazilian gives the inaugural speech.

Photo by Marcello Casal, Agência Brasil, a public Brazilian news agency 

external image UN_62nd_General_Assembly.jpg
Wikipedia offers a brief overview of the role of the United States in the formation of the United Nations. Note the controversy around the neutrality of the article.


Here are official sites on America's relationship to the United Nations:
The United States Mission to the United Nations

 

Funding for the United Nations: How Much Does the U.S. Pay?

 

 Here is the United Nation's overview of the role of women in the organization and beyond, starting as far back as the League of Nations.


Bureau of International Organizational Affairs


Read more: http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/E-N/International-Organization-Democratic-constitutionalism-versus-international-commitments.html#ixzz0mDfjvboU

Click here for lesson plans about the United Nations offered by the UN website.


See the website of the Committee on Teaching About the United Nations more teaching resources and materials.

Here's a quiz to review material on the United Nations.

 

The United Nations has made strides in LGBT equality, detailed on their 'Free & Equal' campaign page.

 

 

 

The League of Nations

 

Newspaper Headline, 1918


Preceding the formation of the United Nations on January 1, 1942 , was the attempt to form the League of Nations following World War I.


President Woodrow Wilson attempted to engage the United States into a dialogue with other Nations through the League of Nations. There was much opposition to his desires underscoring the dilemma of a democratic government. 

 

Here is a photo link and essay on key facts.

 

 Here is a speech made by Woodrow Wilson to appeal to the people of the United States.

Here is a brief history of the League of Nations

Click here for a lesson plan on the League of Nations.

 

Click here for a video on the rise and fall of the League of Nations. It tells us why it was formed and why it failed. 

 

 

 

The World Bank & International Monetary Fund


external image 320_worldbank-logo.jpg
In July 1944, as World War II was still being fought, delegates from the Allied Nations met in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to discuss how best to rebuild the global economy.

 

 

 


Read about US involvement in the World Bank here


The World Bank states that they are working to improve the lives of women and girls in the developing world. Click here to read their view of how they are"Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity" and here to see all of the statistics in their gender data site.

Click here for a lesson plan on the World Bank and IMF

Caroline Anstey is current Managing Director of the World Bank.


Criticism of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

 


Some people and organizations are critical of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, such as in this description from Global Exchange, an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world.

"The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created in 1944 at a conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, and are now based in Washington, DC. The IMF was originally designed to promote international economic cooperation and provide its member countries with short-term loans so they could trade with other countries (achieve a balance of payments). Since the debt crisis of the 1980's, the IMF has assumed the role of bailing out countries during financial crises (caused in large part by currency speculation in the global casino economy) with emergency loan packages tied to certain conditions, often referred to as structural adjustment policies (SAPs). The IMF now acts like a global loan shark, exerting enormous leverage over the economies of more than 60 countries. These countries have to follow the IMF's policies to get loans, international assistance, and even debt relief. Thus, the IMF decides how much debtor countries can spend on education, healthcare, and environmental protection."

Click here to read Global Exchange's Top Ten Reasons to Oppose the World Bank.


For another critical view, you can visit the Bretton Woods Project.

View the IMF's YouTube channel here

 

 

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

 
Created in 1949, NATO was a United States-led system of allies countering Soviet armies in central and eastern Europe.

 

Member Nations in NATO (31 as of April 2023)

 

What Is NATO?

 

A Short History of NATO

 

US government page on NATO
 

 

short history of NATO

 

A timeline of NATO through 2019: https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/30/world/nato-fast-facts/index.html

 

An interactive map with NATO Facts and Knowledge: https://www.nato.int/nato-on-the-map/#lat=44.96446784737924&lon=10.298335764409114&zoom=0&layer-3

 

Women of NATO - the Foreign Policy Project podcasts with prominent women within NATO

 

 

Trump and NATO - Foreignpolicy.com article on Trump's administration and its change of relations towards NATO compared to previous presidential administration

 

LGBTQ and NATO - an article on LGBTQ troops and their service under the NATO banner

 

 

European Union (EU)

 

Created in 1958 as the European Economic Community which brought together six founding countries to increase economic cooperation amongst themselves. It changed its name to the European Union in 1993.

 

Official website of the EU: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en

 

Video describing the history of the EU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O37yJBFRrfg 

 

Official website of the USEU, the formal alliance between the United States and the European Union: Homepage - U.S. Mission to the European Union (usmission.gov)

 

NAFTA Flag, 2009

 

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

 

Overview:

How it was created:

 

 

 

What did it do?

 

Criticism of NAFTA 

 

Impact:

 

For two websites with information about NAFTA click here and here

For a video click here

For a study tool click here

For a primary source about president Clinton and others remarks on NAFTA click here

 

Flag of the World Health Organization

 

World Health Organization

 

Website of the World Health Organization

 

 Learning plan

 

Governing Global Health: The World Health Organization and Ebola

(This may help students better understand the current situation through comparing it to another pandemic)

 

 

Plague Inc.: The Cure is a reversed spinoff of the board game 'Pandemic' that asks students to coordinate and launch a response to a global outbreak of disease, acting as a fictional World Health Organization. 

 

Click here for a video titled:

What is the World Health Organization?

 

Click here for a video titled:

What does the World Health Organization Do?

 

Click here for a video titled:

WHO: Guardian of Health

 

Click here for a video titled:

WHO: Preventing disease through healthy environments

 

Quiz Question: 

 

Question: Why is the United States one of the 5 permanent members of the United Nations security council?

 

Answer: The 5 permanent members of the Security council are the victors or allies of WWII and their importance after the war. The United States was part of these countries. The other permanent members are China, France, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom. There are also 10 non-permanent members elected for 2 year terms by the General Assembly.