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As international organizations become ever more prominent in global politics it is increasingly urgent to understand their power, their limits, and their effects. Now in its fourth edition, this leading textbook provides the definitive introduction to modern international organizations, from the legal charters of their beginnings, to the issues they engage with in the contemporary world. In his analysis of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the International Criminal Court and ten other prominent global institutions, Hurd combines legal, empirical, and theoretical approaches in an accessible and cohesive package. Fully revised and updated, this latest edition includes topical cases and controversies involving international organizations, such as Brexit, trade wars, environmentalism, forced migration and border disputes. It will be of interest to undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in international organizations, international institutions, global governance, and international law.

Die UN-Sanktionen gegen Libyen zu Beginn der 90er Jahre setzten im UN-Sicherheitsrat eine Kontroverse über die Interpretation der zentralen Rechtsnormen in den internationalen Beziehungen in Gang. Internationale Prinzipien wie Rechtstaatlichkeit, Unschuldsvermutung und Respekt vor der Autorität internationaler Organisationen wurden in dieser Kontroverse sowohl von Befürwortern als auch von Gegner der Sanktionen zur Rechtfertigung ihrer Position angeführt. Somit verdeutlicht diese Kontroverse dreierlei: Erstens, wie bedeutend das Prinzip von Legitimität in den internationalen Beziehungen ist. Zweitens, dass dieses Prinzip symbolische Macht verleiht, um die sich jedes Land aus strategischen Gründen bemüht. Und drittens, dass die Verteilung dieser symbolischen Macht keineswegs mit der Verteilung der tatsächlichen, materiellen Macht korreliert. Daher ist es keineswegs unmöglich, dass offensichtlich starke Staaten von offensichtlich schwachen Staaten auf Grundlage der symbolischen Macht in einer internationalen Debatte besiegt werden können. (rll-swp)

View that the United Nations Security Council was designed to avoid conflict among the Great Powers, and has been successful in this regard; in context of inability of the UN to stop the US-led war against Iraq. Covers history and establishment of the Security Council, power and legitimacy, and influence of the UN on US foreign policy.

A fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the UN Security Council has led to the criticism following the most recent Iraq-US war, which describes the UN opposition as irrelevant & unable to act or effect change. Rather than seeing the Council in moralistic & legal terms, the Council must be viewed in realistic political terms within its historical framework. The Council was primarily established for maintaining peace & avoiding conflict among the Great Powers rather than for protection of the weak from the strong. Thus the veto guarantees inaction precisely when tension is greatest between the Great Powers. The Council has sufficient legitimacy in international politics that its approval was sought by Washington prior to the Iraq War, that countries such as Canada & Turkey followed the UN signals as to whether to support the mission, & that denial of approval realized the more modest set of UN goals & powers in that it reinforced the legal principles of the Charter & raised the costs of unilateralism to a Great Power. This is important because it influences how US foreign policy makers assess US interests in world politics. L. Kehl