International cooperation, its achievement and drawbacks

Within any given country the national government takes responsibility for providing the economic, political, legal and monetary stability. To meet this need variety of international institution and treaties have been developed through cooperative agreement among nations. This institution are organized according to their primary purpose which are

1.      political

2.      economics

Political means that the organization or institution is related to administration and governance. Economic suggest a focus of money, trade and commerce. However institutions are dynamic i.e. they continuously evolve and as they do so their purpose tend to shift because the world itself is changing. This organization also overlaps in their political and economic arenas or perspective.

 Some of the major political institution which has a major impact includes

1.      united nation

It was formed in 1945 comprising of 50 countries but today it has a membership of 191 member states. The UN has been responsible for many international agreements, promotion of peace, global stability and many function related to business. Specifically it plays the following significant role

a.       It provides the soft infrastructure for the global economy by setting technical standard and norms.

b.      It addresses the down side of globalization i.e. crime, drugs and arm trafficking.

c.       It seeks solution to global environmental problem e.g. global warming.

d.      It addresses education and health issues that require global level solution.

e.       It build the cornerstone of un-interdependence world based on trust and shared values.

Other political international organization include; north Atlantic treaty organization (NATO) which is a security alliance of 26 north American and European nation, collective security treaty organization which is a security alliance of 6 members i.e. the former union of soviet socialist republic and the Association of South East Asian nation which comprises of ten member body formed to promote peace and cooperation in the south east Asian region.

International economic institution

This institution result from economic agreement among countries. They include

–          world trade organization

–          the organization of economic cooperation and development

–          economic agreement

World trade organization (WTO) is a multinational body comprising of 149 member states. It main goal is to reduce or eliminate trade barriers and restriction world wide.

Economic integration

There are various levels of economic integration

1.      Free trade area – this is where member states reduce barriers to trade but retain their own trade policy.

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2.      custom union – members remove all barriers to trade and adopt the same tariff toward non-members

3.      Common market- this has the same qualities as custom union and in addition it allows free mobility of factors of production.

4.      economic union – member states have same development policy and joint economic structure

5.      Monetary union – this is where member states adopt a common currency.

The world today is still fighting increase in poverty, disease, threat from terrorism attacks and other related crime, political clashes, threat from use of nuclear weapon, environmental crisis such as global warming and sustaining both human and natural resources in the long-term. Through international cooperation the developed nations are giving assistance to less develop and developing countries in term of aid and grant to help fight poverty and disease. This has lead to killer disease such as AIDS, malaria, TB, cholera and other which mostly affect the poor being controlled hence saving lives. Besides contributing capital this donor countries have been able to send doctors to assist in fighting this diseases. Further more aids have been channeled to development project such irrigation, road and industries with an aim of helping this poor nation become self reliant and this have been a great step to reduce poverty.

            During the past 10 years terrorism have claimed many lives particularly in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, middle east, Indonesia and other part of the world. Through international cooperation the world has and will be able to cub such threats. As from 2001 when terrorist attacked the US and many countries joined hand in the war against terrorist we have seen a reduction in major attacks. The war against terrorism cannot be fought by one nation as terrorist are wide spread and are believed to operate as cartels so it is through cooperation that the world can succeed.

            The use of nuclear weapon is a major threat to world peace and through international cooperation sanction has been placed to countries like Iran to stop the development of nuclear plant. Other successful sanction was placed on North Korea and Iraq. These sanctions are inform of withdrawal of trade with concerned countries and travel ban of key people involved.

            Through the effort of UN and other developed nation there has been restoration of peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine. Other organization such as the African Union(AU) have spearheaded the restoration of peace in Sudan, Somalia, Liberia, ivory coast and the famous 1994 Rwanda genocide. The international community was also able to resolve the long border conflict between India and Pakistan and is also putting pressure on leaders who are believed to be dictators and fail to respect human right and democracy to quit and hand over power e.g. Robert mugambe of Zimbabwe. After the disputed election in Kenya it is the pressure from international community that restored peace and ended the tribal clashes experienced. The international criminal court is working as a remedy to victim of political clashes as perpetrators are tried and charged.

            Global warming is a major crisis that many nations are tying to deal with. Many organization including the G8 and UN have organized conferences to try and resolve this issue. The have been able to draft rules and recommendation to be adopted by members and like minded parties. Though there has been no concrete solution reached on solving

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this problem every nation have acknowledged that this is a major crises and each is adopting measures to reduce carbon emission.

            Though international cooperation has helped achieve much there are many challenges which hinder efficient operations. The signing of both bilateral and multilateral agreement create responsibility among the parties to perform according to the treaty but many organization lack a specific body to enforce this agreement due to lack of formal authority. For instance every nation which was signed the UN recommendation on global warming is not obligated to follow those recommendation i.e. it is upon the free will of a nation to obey and failure to perform though will be criticized, there are no direct punishment. Therefore the national interest of a country is given priority over international recommendations. In addition there has been lack of willingness among some members in following some recommendation especially where some fill that they have been disadvantaged. Personal differences between some leaders have also been an obstacles to international cooperation where they result to solving their differences on international front i.e. some leaders oppose recommendation by others not because they have any good reason but only that they dislike him or her. Corruption especially in poor countries have made it difficult to fight poverty and disease as the few resources available are channeled to individual account thereby creating a huge difference between the rich and the poor (Benvenisti & Hirsch, 2004).

            Some trade agreement have also lead to some parties benefiting more than other especially where they involve trade between developed and developing nation as the former export more than import thereby creating a balance of payment deficit. Further more where one country relies on the other for essential product it can result to compromise of decision.

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Reference

Benvenisti, E., & Hirsch, M. (2004). The impact of international law on international cooperation: Theoretical perspectives. New York: Cambridge.