International Organizations: Perspectives on Governance in the Twenty-first Century

by Kelly-Kate S. Pease

Drawing on mainstream and critical theoretical approaches, International Organizations offers a comprehensive examination of international organizations’ political and structural role in world politics. This text details the types and activities of international organizations and provides students with the conceptual tools needed to evaluate their effectiveness. Surveying key issue areas from international and human security to trade and the environment, International Organizations looks at present and future possibilities for global governance from a broad range of perspectives.

Genres: Politics, International Relations, Nonfiction, School

345 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Anna]

Dry as dust but we made it

[✧ mads ✧]

Reading list - Global Governance and International Law - Ch2

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, this is not a bad book for someone looking to get a general overview of political theory as it applies to issues that impact international organizations. It is _not_ a good book for someone looking for information on specific international organizations, although there is a little bit of that to be found.

It starts off with a general overview of some of the major political theories -- Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, and Feminism. The first three are covered in virtually any text that details political theory, and often in much more depth that we get here. Feminism, on the other hand, I've typically only seen mentioned in passing as a lens for examining international relations, so that was a welcome addition, and really the biggest reason that I'd be inclined to recommend the book to anyone else.

I'd honestly expected a little more thorough a look at international organizations themselves, given the title of the book, but that's almost a secondary subject, really. It looks at some of the major issues in international relations (international security, the environment, etc.) and then brifly examines certain cases that relate to each through the lens of each of the four major theories.

All in all, it's a fair book. If we had half stars, I'd be inclined to give it 2.5 for the more detailed look at Feminism than I've gotten in other books.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pretty good textbook. It presents issues relating to international organizations and then provides multiple perspectives from different traditions of international relations such as realism, constructivism, and feminism.

[Christa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essays. Very informative even though it was published in 2002. You can still use this as a guide to how situations in global governance have gone awry

[Hung-ya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative.