Nineteenth Century DevelopmentInternational and regional organizations

THE CONCERT OF EUROPE

The Concert

It is an informal arrangement whereby the European powers consulted together at times of crisis

Originated in the wartime alliance against Napoleon

Early ideas that the Concert should be a kind of international government with wide powers of intervention in the domestic affairs of states foundered on the British insistence on the principle of non-government intervention remaining the cornerstone of the international system

The Concert

• It become a significant factor behind the relative absence of conflict amongst the European powers for much of hundred years after the end of Napoleonic wars, with main exception being the period 1854-1871.• Emphasized the need for consultation and

diplomacy before resorting to force helped to prevent conflict up to the spectacular breakdown of the system in 1914

Its components

• Few legislative, administrative, and executive organs• Quadruple Alliance of Austria, Britain, Prussia, and

Russia (with France in 1818)• Agreed to meet on the event of any threat to the ‘repose ’ of

Europe, by which was meant the territorial settlement that had been drawn up in 1814-15 with the aim of a more durable balance of power

• Rules are informal• Includes assertion of special rights and responsibilities

for the great powers

Impact to succeeding IOsThe system Alliance, which declared as the principal

arbiters of Europe’s affairs while simultaneously imposing a far simpler rules regarding precedence, were adopted by

the League Council and the UN Security Council

The Concert took upon itself to confer international legitimacy on states – to determine their very right

to exist as states and presently, it broadens up to the conduct as well as the status of states

The Concert laid the down a number of general norms that affect the internal and external affairs of states• Example: legal principles governing the navigation of international rivers,

injunctions against slave trade, and assertion of the rights of religious minorities

THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)

Founded by Henri Dunant in 1963 after witnessing the suffering of the wounded and the sicked during the battle of Solferino in 1859

Promotes the creation of national Red Cross societies

Adopted four Geneva Conventions in 1949 covering treatment for the wounded at land and sea, prisoners of was (POWs), and civilians and neutrals

Impact on IOs• The major role of international

non-governmental organisations (INGOs), the ICRC, in both drafting the Conventions and obtaining agreement of governments and military authorities to norms and rules obtained in them• It is due to the ICRC’s constant

sensitivity to the rights of states and to its own need to tread warily and discreetly whenever states might feel those rights to be under threat

HAGUE CONFERENCES

The Hague

Held in 1899 and 1907

Originated from the proposal for disarmament conference by Tsar Nicholas and marked the high point of international arbitration

Most highly attended conferences with delegates from Europe, North and South America, and Asia

Its popularity being a clear response to the interdependence that many now felt to be a crucial factor in international relations

The Hague

States recognized that when dispute arises between two or more nations, the others, without being directly involved, are seriously affected.

• A need for a machinery to be developed for states to submit their disputes for mediation, conciliation or arbitration

The first Conference resulted in the establishment of Permanent Court of Arbitration and some provisions for the use of International Commissions of Inquiry in certain disputes

The second Conference revised the conventions agreed in the first and added ten new ones, mostly concerned with the laws of war

No significant progress was made in the area of disarmament – the original occasion of the Conferences

Major IGOs and IROs in the world outside UN

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