Suchergebnisse

Despite the fact that the General Assembly of the United Nations established a budget of $155,860,500 for first year of operation of the IRO, as of September, 1947, contributions were at the rate of only $90,000,000 a year, and actual payments represented only one-fourth of the annual contributions of the twelve member governments. With these funds the Preparatory Commission, which had taken over operational activities of UNRRA and IGC on June 30, 1947, maintained 640,000 people in European and Middle Eastern camps, and was providing legal assistance and administrative aid to 900,000 others not in camps. Food and transportation was being given those who voluntarily returned to their former homes, and the immigration of some 12,000 people who monthly moved to new countries was being aided.

International Trade, 1953: A report on international trade developments during 1953 was issued by GATT in June 1954. During the year 1953, a significant change had occurred in the prevailing post-1950 pattern of trade; the unfavorable position of the western European industrial areas with the accompanying dollar deficits had been largely redressed, with a gradual reversion to the pre-Korean price structure. Important shifts in the flow of goods between the industrial areas had contributed to a more balanced trade pattern than at any other time in the post-war period. The level of trade among the three non-industrial areas had remained remarkably constant, but there had been a significant slowing down of the exchange of goods between the areas producing primary products and the industrial areas of the world; while the volume of exports of the primary producers had increased, the prices of their commodities had fallen to an extent that made export proceeds decline heavily. However, there had been an intensification of exchanges between each industrial area and the particular primary producing region with which it was most closely associated.

This article examines EU performance by assessing its effectiveness in the ILO and the relevance of the EU to its major stakeholders between 1992-2010. Making a distinction between technical and political domains, it maps the ILO policy-making structures in which the EU must operate. In the technical domain it argues that although the EU has been effective in uploading its policy preferences into ILO labour standards, the relevance of collective EU representation to the member states has marginally decreased since 1992 by comparison to the previous 20 years. In the political domain there has been considerable progress enhancing EU performance in promoting compliance with labour standards within the ILO's monitoring system, although the increase results from higher relevance than greater effectiveness. It also argues that the institutional environment of the ILO, constituted by its rules, norms and practices, play an important role in assessing EU performance. Doing so calls into question established assumptions about EU behaviour in international organisations.

The meeting of the Council of the Organization for European Economic Cooperation at Paris on October 6 and 7, 1950 had before it a memorandum submitted by the Secretary-General of the organization (Marjolin) concerned chiefly with the economic problems arising from the new international situation and the threat of inflation as a result of the western rearmament effort. The Secretary-General strongly emphasized collective action by member governments rather than on individual solutions to check inflation before it gathered greater momentum. The Council, using the memorandum as a basis, made decisions on the following present and potential problems: international financial stability, investments, raw material shortages, electrical energy, manpower, trade and payments.

The third edition of this popular core textbook provides wide-ranging coverage of the structure, internal working, policies and performance of international organizations such as the UN, EU, IMF and World Bank. Such organizations have never been so important in addressing the challenges that face our increasingly globalised world. This book introduces students to theories with which to approach international organizations, their history, and their ability to respond to contemporary issues in world politics from nuclear disarmament, climate change and human rights protection, to trade, monetary and financial relations, and international development. Underpinning the text is the authors' unique model that views international organizations as actual organizations. Reacting to world events, political actors provide the 'inputs' which are converted by the political systems of these organizations (through various decision-making procedures) into 'outputs' that achieve varying levels of real-world impact and effectiveness. This is the perfect text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Politics and International Relations taking courses on International Organization and Global Governance, as well as essential reading for those studying the UN, the EU and Globalization

This article examines the conditions under which the policy positions of an international organization correspond to the positions of relevant national actors. The commission of the European Union (EU) is often portrayed as an autonomous supranational actor, insulated from national interests. Recent analyses question this view, arguing that the commission is an agent in a principal—agent relationship with member states. The author formulates hypotheses on the conditions under which commissioners' nationalities affect the relative level of agreement between the commission and different member states' positions. The hypotheses are tested with more than 2,000 observations relating to 70 controversial proposals for legislation introduced by the commission from 1996 to 2000. In line with one of the hypotheses, under qualified majority voting in the council, there is relatively high agreement between the commission's positions and the positions of the home member states of the commissioners primarily responsible for drafting the legislative proposals.

In recent years, International Organizations have undergone substantive reforms in terms of their administrative structures and management. This development has so far not been subject to systematic or comparative investigations. With Management Reforms in International Organizations Michael W. Bauer and Christoph Knill present a first attempt to open this black box. How can we explain the speed, acceptance and scope of management reforms in International Organizations? How important are Secretary Generals and member states? Do International Organizations, often considered as crucial diffusion agents for public management reforms, actually live up to the standards they are promoting? Do management reforms have unintended consequences with regard to the policy output? The book delivers a comprehensive analysis of management reforms in a broad range of different International Organizations. Leading scholars in the field analyze the respective reform processes inter alia in the European Commission, the Nordic Council of Ministers, the World Bank, the OECD, the European Central Bank, the European Parliament and the United Nations