‘ ROJECT ON : EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION ’

(INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION)

SUBMITTED TO:

DR. FARAH NAAZ

FACULTY, POLITICAL SCIENCE
SUBMITTED BY:

SHARIQUE RAZA
STUDENT ID-202005762
ROLL NO-20MHD017
SEMESTER- 3RD

HUMAN RIGHTS AND DUTIES EDUCATION

SUBMITTED ON:OCT 30, 2021

JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA, NEW DELHI

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At the outset, I would like to thank my Mentor & Faculty of Political Science, Dr. FARAH
NAAZ, for being a guiding force throughout the course of this submission and being
instrumental in the successful completion of this project report without which my efforts would
have been in vain. He has been kind enough to give me his precious time and all the help which
I needed. I am immensely thankful for the strength that he has endowed me with.

I would also like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the other staff of faculty of Political science,
Jamia Millia Islamia, for being immeasurably accommodating to the requirements of this
humble endeavor.

Sharique Raza
Jamia Millia Islamia
New Delhi

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 Contents

2.0 Objectives

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Rationale for the International Organisations:

2.3 Evolution of International Organisations:
2.3 Philosophical Roots of International Organisations:
2.4 Institutional Evolution of International Organisation:
2.4.1 Congress of Vienna (1814-15):
2.4.2 The Hague Conferences (1899 and 1907):
2.5 The Creation of the League of Nations:
2.6 Conclussin

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 EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: CONGRESS OF
VIENNA TO THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

2.0 Objectives:
This chapter is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis of the history of the international organisations
but rather a glimpse at the evolutionary processes that were a responsible for creating a base for their
existence in today’s world. After going through this chapter you should be able to :
• know the rationale for the existence of international organisations
• identify the different phases of the evolution of international organisation
• develop an insight on the role and importance of Congress of Vienna and the Hague
Conférences as well as the creation and failure of League of Nations

2.1 Introduction:
In the previous lesion, we have discussed the meaning, nature, scope, classification, functions and
importance of international organisations. As we saw, international organisations (intergovernmental or
international nongovernmental) play a decisive role in an era of globalisation. They have become
indispensable in today’s growing interdependence of global community. However, these important
international players do not exist in vacuum nor they are without roots. They have definite historical
background. We cannot understand their role in the present world, if we are not equipped with the
historical and philosophical basis of the international organisations. The understanding of the historical
and philosophical roots of these organisations may help us to shed light on their future evolution

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.

2.2 Rationale for the International Organisations:

Through out the course of world history, the people aspired for global peace, security, socio-political and
economic cooperation, cultural relationship, brotherhood, and global federations. The international
organisations symbolise these hopes and aspirations. As the world shrinks through science and technology,
the amount of international economic and social cooperation multiplies by the effective and sustainable
role of international organisations. Thus, the international organisations help the people and government
of different states to integrate with the world and form an agency of mutual advantage.
To the world duly characterised by the war, conflict, dissension, morbid arms race and terrorism, the
international organisations as platform of stress accommodation and cooperation across national
boundaries become the need of the hour. The existence of international organisations is the constant
reminder of the world peace and security. For example, the emergence of the League of Nations and United
Nations was accompanied by a philosophy of idealism concerning the possibility of world order through
national restraint and cooperation utilising the principles of collective security.
Thus, all these ideas and practices of resolving state differences, promoting mutually assured development
and intergovernmental cooperation are enough to provide rationale to the existence of international
organisations.

2.3 Evolution of International Organisations:

Historically, international organizations have reflected the interests of the world’s most powerful nations,
or great powers. Many international organizations were established during times of global hegemony—
that is, when one nation has predominated in international power. These periods have often followed a
major war among the great powers. Today’s international organizations—such as the UN, the
Organization of American States (OAS), and the World Bank—were created after World War II ended in
1945, when the United States was powerful enough to create rules and institutions that other countries
would follow.

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Although rooted in power, international organizations and regimes generally serve the interests of most
participating nations and usually endure even when hegemony wanes. Most countries share mutual
interests, yet find it hard to coordinate their actions for mutual benefit because of the lack of a central
authority. Nations also face the temptation to bend the rules in their own favour. For example, it is in
everyone’s interest to halt production of chemicals that damage the earth’s ozone layer. However, a
country can save money by continuing to use those chemicals. The coordination of efforts to write new
rules and monitor them requires an international organization. For example, the United Nations
Environment Program helped countries negotiate a treaty to stop producing ozone-destroying chemicals.
Thus, nations find it useful to give international organizations some power to enforce rules. Most countries
follow the rules most of the time.

2.4 Philosophical Roots of International Organisations:

In every period of recorded history, there were number of political philosophers who advocated the ideal
of international accommodation and cooperation. A broad legacy of ideas for controlling warfare, the
ultimate goal of present day international organisations, could be traced back to the Greek philosophers,
Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC), who deplored and unjustified the war except in self
defence. In this same pattern, the medieval thinkers and the spokesmen for the Church, St. Augustine
(354-430) and Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), also opposed the war as inhuman and wasteful except against
the infidel. Ancient Chinese philosophers such as Confucius (551-479 BC) deplored the use of coercion
and advocated good faith and moderation as the key doctrines of interstate relations. Another Chinese, Mo
Ti (fifth century BC), showed an even greater aversion to war as not only a criminal act but also as an
economic waste. The Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466- 1536), as a humanist, pacifist, and
internationalist, expressed clearly his rejection of war as brutal, wicked, wasteful, and stupid. Willam
Ellery Channing (1780-1882), the pioneer of American Peace Movement, attacked war as the greatest of
all moral evils. Just prior to World War I, Norman Angell (1874-1967), an English publicist, in his book
The Great Illusion argued that modern wars were unprofitable for both the victors and the vanquished.
Furthermore, military preparedness was socially and economically wasteful and futile. Like Channing, he
believed that people ideas would have to change before effective peace machinery could be erected.
Many alternatives, that have taken variety of forms, have been proposed for settling disputes or for
channelling peaceful change. One alternative to state conflict is world unity in the form of universal
empire. In this context, Dante Alighieri (1265-1312) eulogised the consolidation of territory under the

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Roman Empire, and for him the restoration of the conditions of the Roman Empire represented the most
hopeful approach to universal peace. Cosmopolitanism was suggested another alternative by the Cynics
and Stoics. The Cynics rejected the idea of patriotism and the need for separate states. The Stoics held the
idea of humans joined by universal reason in a universal society. Both Cicero and Seneca were influential
Roman stoics. Cicero believed in universal and superior law of justice derived through reason, where as
Seneca emphasised virtue through service to a world society.
During the past four centuries, philosophers have advocated such diverse approaches to world order as the
development of international law, decolonisation, disarmament, and free trade. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645),
the father of modern international law, in his book On the Law of War and Peace believed that law is
necessary in the relations among nations and that it serves as a limitation upon sovereignty. Jeremy
Bentham in his Principles of International Law (1786-89) focussed on the decolonisation and general
disarmament as twin fundamental principles for attaining an orderly world.
J.A. Hobson, a British economist, through his book Imperialism (1902) attacked colonialism and
anticipated the mandate and trusteeship systems of the League of Nations and the United Nations by
advocating international responsibility for colonial states to ensure against exploitation of non-self-
governing peoples. Richard Cobban (1804-65) advocated free trade as the main key to world peace.
Several elaborate plans for international peace machinery were also suggested that include the setting
up of confederacies or loose political unions of one type or another. Pierre Dubois (1250-1322) suggested
an alliance of Christian rulers under French leadership to wage wars against infidels and peace among
Christian nations. In 1963, another Frenchman, Emeric Cruce proposed the creation of a universal
organisation for the promotion of trade, arts, travelling and agreements for the stabilisation and exchange
of currencies and for the standardisation of weights and measures. The disputes would be heard and
settled by a permanent assembly of ambassadors, with decisions by majority vote and enforcement of
this decision by mutual military sanctions. In 1694, William Penn and early in the following century
Abbe de Saint-Pierre also proposed the establishment of a general parliament or assembly to settle all
disputes by a three-fourths vote, with collective sanctions including armed force. Abbe thought that peace
would promote the greater prosperity of all, and he proposed a series of bureaus to develop cooperation
in commercial law, weights and measures, and monetary systems.
In his thinking about plans for peace, Immanuel Kant foresaw in his book Perpetual Peace (1795) a world
society made up of republican states as the ideal basis for peace. The main elements in Kant’s plan
included a federation open to voluntary membership of any state; a congress to settle disputes; no standing
armies; no territorial changes by conquest, inheritance or purchase; no loans for external

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purposes; no interference by one state in the internal affairs of another; the right of self-determination; and
world citizenship and freedom of movement between countries based on a universal law of hospitality.
Prior to the creation of League of Nations, William Ladd, an American Quaker, in his Essay on a Congress
of Nations (1840) advocated the establishment of a Congress of Nations and a Court of Nations with
legislative and judicial powers to develop and apply international law. The congress would develop law
by unanimous decision in the form of treaties. The court would hear cases submitted with the mutual
consent of the contending states and would apply principles of international law, and in their absence,
principles of equity and justice. He also advocated the abolition of standing armies.
Despite the existence of sound philosophical basis discussed above, the growth of international institutions
has come only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The reasons could be many. First, the ideas were
not necessarily dominant or exclusive in their impact upon the ruler’ thoughts and behaviour. Second,
unlike today the conditions of their age were not conducive to an increased emphasis on international
cooperation.

2.5 Institutional Evolution of International Organisations:

However, the movement to establish international organisations in their institutional form is mostly
confined to the past 100 years, with the greatest development since World War II ended in 1945.
Nonetheless, the institutional model upon which modern international organisation is built can be traced
through many centuries. However, the evolution of international organisation can be divided into many
phases:
Indeed, the ancient Greeks could be credited with the first formal organisation, the Amphietyonic League,
created in the early sixth century BC for regulating relations between their city states. A confederation,
Delos, was created a little later between maritime states of the Aegean islands who contributed ships and
men to maintain a common navy. A little later still, 70 Greek states formed the Achaean League of the
Hellense. These could have been the prototype of the regional intergovernmental organisations of today.
The spread of Roman Empire from Mediterranean area to the most of Western and Central Europe and its
remoteness from other centres of power such as China and India precluded inter-state relations of a
permanent kind. The Romans evolved military, administrative and legal techniques that were useful in the
evolution international organisations and international law. With the decline of Roman Empire, the

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Roman Church grew in power and remains to this day a powerful international nongovernmental
organisation.
The Middle Ages witnessed several alliances and associations. A famous group concerned with the
promotion of trade, which took on some political aspects as well, was the Hanseatic League. In 1315, a
treaty among the Swiss cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden gave rise to a confederation.
As the medieval system disintegrated and new developments—the Reformation, Renaissance, the
scientific innovations, industrial revolution and the consequent expansion of trade and commerce—that
took place in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries changed the whole complexion of
international relations. Political, economic and diplomatic relationship became more widespread. As the
world started becoming closer, new complexities of interdependence emerged that gave birth to extended
diplomacy in the form of international conferences, treaties and formal peace. The first significant event
in this context was the Congress of Westphalia (1648) that closed the Thirty Years' War and readjusted
the religious and political affairs of Europe by creating sovereign and independent states.
In the 18th century, German philosopher Immanuel Kant and French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau
broadly outlined the concept of a global federation of countries resembling today’s UN. However, nations
joined the first intergovernmental organisations in the 19th century. These were practical organizations
through which nations managed specific issues, such as international mail service and control of traffic
on European rivers.

2.5.1 Congress of Vienna (1814-15):

Congress of Vienna (1814-15), which was called to re-establish the territorial divisions of Europe at the
end of the Napoleonic Wars after the downfall of Napoleon, is treated as the first systematic effort to
regulate international affairs by means of regular international conferences. Though the attempt to restore
the world order was successful only partially and temporarily, the foundation was laid for a political and
international system which lasted for practically a century and shaped the course of world affairs,
particularly European. The principal architect of the peace settlement devised at the conference, Austrian
foreign minister Prince Klemens von Metternich, believed that the key to making peace durable was the
balance of power. According to this diplomatic principle, the major nations of Europe should distribute
power relatively evenly among themselves to deter any one of them from seeking dominance over the
continent. If any country were to attempt to disturb the balance of power, the others would oppose it as
an alliance. The central agency to enforce the Vienna settlement was the Quadruple Alliance of Austria,
Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia; it became a Quintuple Alliance in

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1818 when France joined it. The Congress also evolved the procedure of having a presiding officer and
committees for the conduct of its business. It also provided a threefold classification of envoys and laid
down the principle of the basic equality of all the states Furthermore, it went beyond its political business
to consider a variety of socio-economic issues as well.
The Congress of Vienna is to be regarded a milestone in the evolution of international organisations for
several reasons. First, despite the hostilities, the alliance, which was formed in this conference, continued
to enforce peace. Second, there were frequent periodic conferences. Third, despite the suspicions of the
smaller powers it was generally agreed that the maintenance of peace depended on this sort of big power
collaboration. These notions were carried over into both the League of Nations and the United Nations.
The Vienna Congress set the similar patterns of informal consultations and conferences and occasional
concerted action. Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria were now dedicated to a European territorial
settlement maintained by a new mechanism called the Concert of Europe. Any changes would have to
be made by prior consultation among the five major powers. The Eastern Question revolved around the
fear that one of the European powers would upset the balance of power by taking advantage of any internal
changes made in the domains of the Ottoman Empire. The Concert of Europe preserved the peace until
the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853. Several other conferences took place right down to 1914. The
Paris Conference of 1856 and the Berlin consultations of 1871 dealt with the problems of the Balkans.
The Congress of Berlin in 1878 dealt with the issue of Turkey. The concert of Europe, however, was not
able to cope with the nationalistic rivalries and divisive tendencies which led to the World War I.

2.5.2 The Hague Conferences (1899 and 1907):

Another important events which was regarded as a landmark in the development of international
organisations was the two international peace conferences known as The Hague Conferences. The first
conference was called on the initiative of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia for the purpose of bringing together
the principal nations of the world to discuss and resolve the problems of maintaining universal peace,
reducing armaments, and ameliorating the conditions of warfare. Twenty-six countries accepted the
invitation to the conference issued by the minister of foreign affairs of the Netherlands.
The delegates to the conference entered into three formal conventions, or treaties. The first and most
important one set up permanent machinery for the optional arbitration of controversial issues between
nations. This machinery took the form of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, popularly known as The
Hague Court or Hague Tribunal. The second and third conventions revised some of the customs and

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laws of warfare to eliminate unnecessary suffering during a war on the part of all concerned, whether
combatants, non-combatants, or neutrals. These two conventions were supplemented by three declarations,
to stay in force five years, forbidding the use of poison gas, expanding (or dumdum) bullets, and
bombardment from the air by the use of balloons or by other means.
Despite the failure of the conference to limit armaments, or to provide for compulsory arbitration of
international disputes—the great nations refused to adopt compulsory arbitration because it infringed on
their national sovereignty—the conference was one of the most significant international conferences of
modern times, because it was the first multilateral international conference on general issues since the
Congress of Vienna in 1815 and pointed forward to the later League of Nations, forerunner of the United
Nations.
The idea of holding the Second International Peace Conference was first promulgated by U.S. Secretary
of State John Milton Hay in 1904, and it was called three years later on the direct initiative of the Russian
government. The conference took place at The Hague from June 15 to October 18, 1907, and was attended
by representatives from 44 countries. The second conference resulted in 13 conventions, which were
concerned principally with clarifying and amplifying the understandings arrived at in the first conference.
In particular, new principles were established in regard to various aspects of warfare, including the rights
and duties of neutrals, naval bombardment, the laying of automatic submarine contact mines, and the
conditions under which merchant ships might be converted into warships. The second conference
recommended that a third conference be held within eight years. The government of the Netherlands
actually began preparations for such a conference, to be held in 1915 or 1916; the outbreak of World War
I, however, put an end to the preparations. After 1919, and until the formation of the UN in 1945, the
functions of the Hague conferences were largely carried on by the League of Nations.
From the middle of nineteenth century on wards, there was a considerable growth in administrative
international institutions, at both intergovernmental and non-governmental levels. For example, the
European Commission for the Danube (1856). Other institutions too came up, such as: the Geodetic Union
(1864); the International Telegraph Union (1865), later renamed as International Telecommunication
Union (ITU); the International Meteorological Organisation (1873); the General Postal Union (184), later
renamed as Universal Postal Union (UPU); the International Copyright Union (1886); the Central Office
for International Railway Transport (1890); and the United International Bureau for the Protection of
Intellectual Property (1893). Such organizations proliferated in the 20th

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century to cover a wide variety of specific issues. At the same time, the scope of international organizations
expanded, culminating with the creation of the League of Nations in 1920.

2.6 The Creation of the League of Nations:

World War I (1914-18) brought an end to Concert of Europe and a scheduled third Hague peace
conference. But following the war, the two concepts reappeared and were merged into the formation of
the League of Nations, which retained the great power executive committee status of Concert in
combination with the egalitarian universality of the Hague idea. However, The idea of the actual League
of Nations appears to have originated with British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey, and it was
enthusiastically adopted by the Democratic U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel
Edward M. House as a means of avoiding bloodshed like that of World War I. The creation of the League
was a centerpiece of Wilson's Fourteen Points for Peace, specifically the final point: "

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general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording
mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." The
Paris Peace Conference accepted the proposal to create the League of Nations on January 25, 1919. The
Covenant of the League of Nations was drafted by a special commission, and the League was established
by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed on June 28, 1919. Initially, the Charter was signed
by 44 states, including 31 states which had taken part in the war on the side of the Triple Entente or joined
it during the conflict. Despite Wilson's efforts to establish and promote the League, for which he was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, the United States neither ratified the Charter nor joined the
League due to opposition in the U.S. Senate, especially influential Republicans Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts and William E. Borah of Idaho, together with Wilson's refusal to compromise.
The League held its first meeting in London on January 10, 1920. Its first action was to ratify the Treaty
of Versailles, officially ending World War I. The headquarters of the League moved to Geneva on
November 1, 1920, where the first general assembly of the League was held on November 15, 1920 with
representatives from 41 nations in attendance.
Born with the will of the victors of the First World War to avoid a repeat of a devastating war, the League
of Nations objective was to maintain universal peace within the framework of the fundamental principles
of the Pact accepted by its Members : to develop cooperation among nations and to guarantee them peace
and security.
The first years of existence of the League of Nations were marked by great successes. In accordance with
the provisions of the Pact, several international disagreements – between Sweden and Finland and between
Greece and Bulgaria – were resolved peacefully. The Locarno Agreements signed in October 1925, which
marked the beginnings of a Franco-German reconciliation, were entrusted to the League. A direct
consequence, Germany, beaten and excluded from the League by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, became
a Member in 1926. In 1929, the delegate from France, Aristide Briand, put forward to the Assembly the
very first political project of a European Federal Union.
In spite of these early successes, the League of Nations did not manage to prevent neither the invasion of
Mandchuria by Japan, nor the annexation of Ethiopia by Italy in 1936, nor that of Austria by Hitler in
1938. The powerlessness of the League of Nations to prevent further world conflict, the alienation of part
of its Member States and the generation of the war itself, added to its demise from 1940.
The failure, politically, of the mission of collective security of the League of Nations must nevertheless
not make one overlook its success in, what was from the beginning to be a secondary aspect of its

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 objectives: international technical cooperation. Under its auspices, in fact, considerable number of
conferences, intergovernmental committees and meetings of experts were held in Geneva, in areas as
diverse as health and social affairs, transport and communications, economic and financial affairs and
intellectual cooperation. This fruitful work was validated by the ratification of more than one hundred
conventions by the Member States. The unprecedented work on behalf of refugees carried out by the
Norwegian Fridtjof Nansen from 1920 should also be stressed.
The concept of international organization was however firmly embedded in minds and on the 1st January
1942, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, announced the term, United Nations. On
26 June 1945, the Representatives of fifty countries meeting in San Francisco adopted the Charter of the
United Nations, founder of the new international organization. The United Nations Organization was born
officially on 24th October 1945 when the signatory countries ratified the Charter. Dissolved at a final
Assembly held in Geneva in April 1946, the League of Nations handed over its properties and assets to
the United Nations Organization.
In spite of its political failure, the legacy of the League of Nations at the same time appears clearly in a
number of principles stated by the Charter and in the competencies and experiences developed in the area
of technical cooperation: the majority of the specialized institutions of the United Nations system can in
fact be considered the legacy of the work initiated by the League of Nations.

CONCLUSSION

To sum up, the international organisations have a definite history. While surveying the historical roots of
international organisations, we find that, in all ages, people, scholars and the states felt the need of an
international body to resolve their disputes and to establish peace. It is their hope and aspirations of a
better world order worked as the basis of present day international organisations. Furthermore, the sound
historical base of international organisations is just like a workshop from where they learned the art to play
an effective role in the contemporary world system.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1) LeRoy Bennett, International Organisations: Principles and Issues, New Jersey: Prentice Hall
Inc., 1998
2) Kalpana Rajaram (ed.), International Organisations, Conferences and Treaties, New Delhi:
Spectrum Books, 2005.
3) F.S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times, 1920-1946, Holmes: 1986
4) Jean E. Krasno (ed.), The United Nations: Confronting the Challenges of a Global Society,
London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2004
5) John Baylis and Steve Smith, The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to
International Relations, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001

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