International Organisations

The purpose of the course is to study theory and praxis of the main international organisations in order to respond to the key question: are they still useful in the current agenda of nationalisms and localisms and protectionisms? Put in another way: is the unilateralism of the global players, the superpowers, better than the multilateralism of the common rules?

The US Administration seems to think that a realistic approach to the international relations is more effective than a so-called democratic approach. Too many links as for humanitarian and environmental rules do not help the prosperity and the growth. This argument applies to the universal organisations like United Nations as well to the regional or specialised organisations like EU and NATO. The system is under pressure and theory should consider the new wave.

The role of NATO and EU cannot be the same because of the new US policy and the withdrawal of UK. Is Brexit the anticipation of the European disaggregation?

The time of the course is short. We should endeavour to demonstrate that the world still needs common rules and aggregation. The need comes from the Second World War. We have to avoid any risk of new conflicts, regional or general it doesn’t matter. A general framework of shared obligations and principles is necessary.

Books suggested:

Fulvio Attinà, The Global Political System, Palgrave, 2011

Cosimo Risi and Alfredo Rizzo, L’Europa della sicurezza e della difesa, Naples, 2016.