International Studies Compendium Project

Extract

Comment on this article   The twentieth century will be remembered for many things. The rise and fall of both fascism and communism, the development of democracy, and the rise of the global village are only a few such examples. Somewhat lost in our understanding of politics in the last century is the decline of the role of the state in world politics. State sovereignty declined throughout the century while citizens’ expectations on the state increased. States were faced with the compounding problems of sovereignty being eroded both from below, through the explosion of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and from above, through the development of international organizations (IOs). Only a few scholars have truly explored this phenomenon and have questioned how we can “bring the state back in” ( Evans et al. 1985 ). This essay will only focus on one half of the decline of state sovereignty issue, that being the power of international organizations. IOs continue to increase their scope and influence. They are being asked to do more in world politics and they are changing what states can and cannot do. There are no better illustrations of this newfound power than the influence IOs now have on the prevention and management of ethnic conflict, and in the field of migration. Both of these issues have long been the sole domain of the nation-state. The state has fought hard to maintain ... log in or subscribe to read full text