Regional organisations

International Relations · Institutions and the international economy. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

Regional organisations are groups of states in one area, or with one shared identity, that work together through permanent institutions. They differ in purpose. NATO is a military alliance for collective defence. Most others aim at economic, political or cultural cooperation.

They also differ in depth. In most of them the members keep full control and decide by agreement; this is intergovernmental cooperation. The European Union goes further: its institutions can make laws that bind the members, so it is called supranational.

For the paper you must be able to match each body with its founding year, its founding event or members, and its headquarters. Learn them as a table.

Rules to remember

EU: established by the Maastricht Treaty (signed 1992, in force 1993); grew out of the European Economic Community of the Treaty of Rome, 1957. The Commission sits in Brussels.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty, Washington, 1949. Article 5: an attack on one is an attack on all. Headquarters in Brussels.
ASEAN: Bangkok Declaration, 1967. Founders: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand. Secretariat in Jakarta.
SAARC: Dhaka, 1985. Founders: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka (Afghanistan joined in 2007). Secretariat in Kathmandu. Its charter excludes bilateral and contentious issues.
OIC: Rabat, 1969, after the arson attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque. Headquarters in Jeddah.
SCO: Shanghai, 2001, growing out of the Shanghai Five of 1996. Founders: China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan. Pakistan and India became full members in 2017.
AU: launched 2002, replacing the Organisation of African Unity (1963). Headquarters in Addis Ababa. ECO: 1985, founded by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey as successor to the RCD (1964). Headquarters in Tehran.

Common mistake

Students place the secretariat in the city where the body was founded. SAARC was founded at Dhaka but sits in Kathmandu; ASEAN was founded at Bangkok but sits in Jakarta; the OIC was founded at Rabat but sits in Jeddah.

Worked example

An organisation was founded in the 1960s by five states, none of them in South Asia, and its secretariat is in Jakarta. Which organisation is it, and in which year was it founded?

The body with its secretariat in Jakarta is ASEAN.
Check the founders: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. That is five states, all in South-East Asia.
ASEAN was created by the Bangkok Declaration of 1967, which fits the 1960s.

Answer: ASEAN, founded in 1967.

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