International Organisations

The chapter looks at the role of international organisations after the Soviet collapse, the calls to restructure them to meet new challenges — including the rise of US power — and the case of Security Council reform. It then turns to India's view of UN reform, asks whether the UN can play a role in a world dominated by one superpower, and introduces other organisations: the IMF, World Bank, WTO, IAEA, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

• Links: Chapter 1 (the unipolar world), Chapter 2 (BRICS, the New Development Bank and the AIIB as alternatives to Western-led institutions) and Chapter 3 (SAARC); Politics in India since Independence Chapter 4 (India and the UN: Kashmir 1948, peacekeeping, non-alignment); Indian Economic Development Chapter 3 (the IMF and World Bank in India's 1991 reforms; the WTO); India: People and Economy Chapter 8 (the WTO and trade).
• UPSC: GS2 — ‘important international institutions, agencies and fora — their structure and mandate’. Prelims asks often on the UN's organs and history (1979–2026), the IMF and World Bank (1984–2025), the IAEA (2002–2020), the G7/G8/G20 (1990, 2009, 2020–23), the SCO (2007, 2022) and the Colombo Plan (1980, 2008, 2026); Mains on India's UNSC bid (2015), UN reform (2025), ECOSOC (2017), UNESCO (2016, 2019), the Counter-Terrorism Committee (2024), the Bretton Woods twins (2013), the SCO (2021, 2023) and the WTO (2014, 2018).

• International organisations are created by and answerable to states; they help settle disputes and organise cooperation (disease, climate).
• UN: successor to the League; Charter signed 26 June 1945; founded 24 October 1945 (UN Day); 51 founders including India; 193 members since 2011.
• Security Council: 5 permanent (US, UK, France, Russia, China) with the veto + 10 elected for two years; enlarged from 11 to 15 in 1965.
• Reform: the 1992 resolution's complaints; criteria for new permanent members; the veto debate; 2005 World Summit — Peacebuilding Commission, Human Rights Council (2006), responsibility to protect.
• India's claim: population, largest democracy, peacekeeping, economy, regular dues — against objections (nuclear weapons, Pakistan, rival aspirants, Africa and Latin America).
• Others: IMF (190+ members, weighted votes), World Bank (1944), WTO (1995, successor to GATT), IAEA (1957, ‘Atoms for Peace’), Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

NCERT opens with two cartoons criticising the UN's ineffectiveness in the 2006 Lebanon crisis — the kind of opinion often heard. Yet the UN is widely regarded as the most important international organisation, indispensable and humanity's great hope for peace and progress. Two insiders explain why: Dag Hammarskjöld, its second Secretary-General, said the UN was not created to take humanity to heaven but to save it from hell; Shashi Tharoor, a former Under-Secretary-General, defended the ‘talking shop’ — echoing Churchill that jaw-jaw is better than war-war.

International organisations are not the answer to everything, but they matter in two ways. First, countries in dispute need not go to war: they can discuss contentious issues and find peaceful solutions — and most disputes are in fact settled without war. An international organisation is not a super-state with authority over members; it is created by and responds to states, and once created helps them resolve problems peacefully. Second, some challenges — eradicating disease, stopping global warming — can be met only if everyone, at least all major industrial powers, cooperates. Recognising the need to cooperate is not the same as cooperating: states disagree on how, how to share costs and benefits, and how to stop cheating. An organisation can supply information, ideas, mechanisms, rules and a bureaucracy that give members confidence that costs and benefits will be fairly shared and agreements honoured. After the Cold War, many feared that the victorious US-led West would face no check; could the UN promote dialogue with the US and limit its power? The chapter returns to this at the end.

The First World War led to the League of Nations; despite early successes it could not prevent the Second World War (1939–45), which killed and wounded more people than any before. The UN was founded in 1945 as its successor, through the Charter signed by 51 states. Its objective is to prevent international conflict and facilitate cooperation: to stop conflicts escalating into war, to limit hostilities if war broke out, and — since conflict often arises from lack of development — to bring countries together for social and economic development. By 2011 it had 193 members, almost all independent states. In the General Assembly each member has one vote; the Security Council has five permanent members — the US, Russia, the UK, France and China — chosen because they were the most powerful states and the victors after the war. The UN's most visible figure is the Secretary-General; NCERT names António Guterres, the ninth, in office since 1 January 2017, a former Prime Minister of Portugal (1995–2002) and UN High Commissioner for Refugees (2005–15). Social and economic issues are handled by agencies such as the WHO, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF and UNESCO.

Reform is fundamental to any organisation, but there is little clarity or consensus on UN reform. Two kinds are needed: reform of structures and processes, and a review of the issues within its jurisdiction. On structures, the biggest debate concerns the Security Council — enlarging its permanent and non-permanent membership to reflect contemporary realities, especially by adding members from Asia, Africa and South America; the US and other Western countries also want better budgetary procedures and administration. On jurisdiction, some want a greater role in peace and security; others want the UN confined to development and humanitarian work.

The UN reflected the world of 1945. After the Cold War: the Soviet Union collapsed; the US is the strongest power; Russia–US relations became more cooperative; China is fast emerging as a great power and India is growing rapidly; Asian economies are growing at an unprecedented rate; many new countries joined; and new challenges arose — genocide, civil war, ethnic conflict, terrorism, nuclear proliferation, climate change, environmental degradation, epidemics. In 1992 the General Assembly adopted a resolution reflecting three complaints: the Security Council no longer represents political realities; its decisions reflect only Western values and interests and are dominated by a few powers; it lacks equitable representation. On 1 January 1997 Secretary-General Kofi Annan initiated an inquiry into reform.

Proposed criteria for new Council members include being a major economic power, a major military power, a substantial budget contributor, a big nation by population, a nation that respects democracy and human rights, and one that would make the Council more representative of the world's geography, economic systems and cultures. Each has some validity — and each is problematic. How big must an economic or military power be? Can a country buy its way in with contributions? Is a big population an asset or a liability? Would the best human-rights records make effective members? Should representation be by continent, sub-region, level of development, or ‘civilisation’ — and how does one divide a world of mixed cultures?

The Council has five permanent and ten non-permanent members. The Charter gave the permanent members a privileged position to bring stability after the war; their main privileges are permanency and the veto. Non-permanent members serve two years, cannot be re-elected immediately, are elected to represent all continents, and do not have the veto. Decisions are taken by vote, each member having one vote; but any permanent member's negative vote can stall a decision even if every other member votes for it — that is the veto. Some want it abolished as inconsistent with democracy and sovereign equality; but the permanent members are unlikely to agree, and the world may not be ready: without the veto there is the danger, as in 1945, that the great powers would lose interest, act outside the UN, and leave it ineffective.

Beyond membership lie weightier issues. At the UN's sixtieth anniversary in September 2005, heads of state and government agreed on steps to make it more relevant: a Peacebuilding Commission; acceptance of the international community's responsibility when national governments fail to protect their citizens from atrocities; a Human Rights Council (operational since 19 June 2006); agreements to achieve the Millennium Development Goals; condemnation of terrorism in all its forms; a Democracy Fund; and agreement to wind up the Trusteeship Council. These are equally contentious: which conflicts should the Peacebuilding Commission take up? Who determines human-rights violations and the response? How realistic are ambitious development goals? Can there be a definition of terrorism? How should democracy be promoted?

India supports restructuring the UN: a strengthened, revitalised UN suits a changing world; development should be central to its agenda as a precondition for peace and security. A major concern is the Council's composition, which has stayed static while the General Assembly expanded, harming its representative character; an expanded Council would enjoy more support. The Council was enlarged from 11 to 15 in 1965, with no new permanent members, and has not changed since, though most General Assembly members are now developing countries, which should help shape decisions that affect them. India supports more permanent and non-permanent members, with more developing countries.

India's own claim. India wishes to be a permanent member: it is the most populous country, with almost one-fifth of humanity; the world's largest democracy; it has taken part in virtually all UN initiatives, with a long, substantial peacekeeping record; its economic emergence strengthens its case; it has paid its contributions regularly; and permanent membership would signify its growing importance — a reputation for power that brings influence. Objections: Pakistan is not the only country reluctant to see India a permanent veto-holding member; some are concerned about its nuclear weapons; others think its difficulties with Pakistan would make it ineffective; others fear that admitting India would require accommodating other emerging powers — Brazil, Germany, Japan, perhaps South Africa — whom they oppose; and some insist Africa and South America, the only continents without permanent seats, must be represented first. So it may not be easy for India — or anyone — to become a permanent member soon.

Some hoped reform would help the UN cope with a unipolar world — could it balance US dominance, keep up dialogue between the US and the rest, and prevent America doing whatever it wants? NCERT says US power cannot easily be checked. First, as the only superpower, its military and economic power let it ignore the UN or any international organisation. Second, its influence inside the UN is considerable: it is the single largest contributor, the UN sits on US territory, many Americans work in the UN bureaucracy, its veto can stop moves it dislikes, and with that power it has a big say in choosing the Secretary-General; it can ‘split’ the rest of the world to reduce opposition. So the UN is not a great balance to the US. Nevertheless, it has brought the US and the rest of the world into discussion: US leaders, despite frequent criticism, see it as useful in bringing over 190 nations together on conflict and development; for the rest of the world it is an arena in which US attitudes and policies can be modified, arguments heard and compromises shaped.

NCERT's conclusion. The UN is imperfect, but without it the world would be worse off. Given growing interdependence, it is hard to imagine more than seven billion people living together without such an organisation; technology will only increase interdependence and the UN's importance. Peoples and governments must find ways to support and use it in line with their own and the international community's interests.

Try each first. Q1 and Q3–Q5 are also in the self-check.

Numbers

One-liners

• An international organisation is created by states and answers to them — it is not a super-state.
• The UN prevents conflict and promotes cooperation; it saves humanity from hell, not takes it to heaven.
• The Security Council's permanent seats and veto reflect 1945; most reform debate is about them.
• Every criterion for new permanent members helps some states and hurts others — so reform stalls.
• India's case: population, democracy, peacekeeping, economy; the obstacles: rivals, Pakistan, Africa first, P5 ratification.
• The UN cannot balance the US, but it is the arena where US policies can be argued with and modified.
• IMF and World Bank votes follow money; the WTO works by consensus; the IAEA inspects nuclear facilities.
• NGOs like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch shape norms by investigating and publicising.

Traps to avoid

• The Secretary-General has no veto; only the five permanent members do (NCERT Q1).
• An abstention by a permanent member is not a veto; procedural votes are not subject to veto.
• GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (NCERT writes ‘Trade and Tariffs’).
• The IAEA and WTO are related organisations, not UN specialised agencies; the IMF and World Bank are specialised agencies.
• The Charter was signed at San Francisco, not Geneva; India was a founding member.
• The Commission on Human Rights was replaced by the Human Rights Council in 2006.
• The 2006 Lebanon war began in July (NCERT: June); Resolution 1701 came on 11 August.
• Russia was not one of the original G7; it joined in 1998 and was suspended in 2014.
• ECOSOC has 54 members, not 24; non-permanent Council members serve two years.
• The Colombo Plan did not expire in 1981 — it was extended indefinitely in 1980.

Prelims — what UPSC asks

• UN organs and history: members and languages (1979, 1980, 1982, 1998), the ICJ's 15 judges (1980), Secretaries-General (1982, 2006), the Charter and India's membership (2005), ECOSOC (2009), the Council's two-year terms (2009) and India's elected terms (1992), the veto under Article 27 (1994), Uniting for Peace (1994), the 1980 enlargement vote, General Assembly observers and the Credentials Committee (2022), headquarters of UN bodies (2002, 2004), the BIS (2010).
• Peacekeeping and agencies: Cyprus (1993), mission dates (2026), UN agencies' Nobel prizes (2026), UNESCO withdrawals (1986).
• IMF and World Bank: functions and lending (1984, 1994, 2011, 2020, 2022), the World Bank Group (1995, 2001, 2010), reports (2002, 2014, 2015, 2016), the SDR (2016), the IMFC (2016), the PRGF (2005), the IBRD (2025), Bretton Woods (2008), matching (1999).
• IAEA and NGOs: the Additional Protocol (2018), safeguards (2020), the Nuclear Security Summits (2017), Amnesty International (2015).
• Groupings: G7 (1990), G8 (2009), G20 (2020, 2022, 2023), SCO (2007 ×2, 2022), Colombo Plan (1980, 2008), Colombo Process (2026).

Mains — where it appears and how to answer

• GS2 UN: impediments to India's permanent seat (2015) — NCERT's objections list plus the Article 108 hurdle and group politics; UN reform amid East–West rivalry (2025); ECOSOC's functions and commissions (2017); the Counter-Terrorism Committee (2024); UNESCO — the MacBride Commission (2016) and the US withdrawal (2019).
• GS2 economic institutions: the Bretton Woods twins (2013); the NDB and AIIB (2014, with Chapter 2); the WTO's mandate and reform (2014, 2018 — with the trade chapters).
• GS2 groupings: the SCO's aims and importance for India (2021) and how conflict affects it (2023) — state members' interests side by side.
• Answer frame: purpose (why organisations) → structure (organs, votes) → problem (1945 structure vs today) → reform options and each group's position → India's case and the obstacles → conclusion on usefulness despite limits.

Tap an option. NCERT's own exercise questions come first; the rest test the figures and common confusions.

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