False Promise of Int. Inst., John Mearsheimer

Mearsheimer defines institutions as “a set of rules that stipulate the ways in which states should cooperate and compete with each other” (Mearsheimer, p8).

In his essay, he refers to the three theories of institutionalism in order to illustrate his lack of confidence in the effectiveness of international institutions. The first, liberal institutionalism, emphasizes economic and environmental cooperation as a means to avoid war. The second, collective security, deals with preventing war by rejecting the use of force, by the immediate squashing of any threat of war, disallowing states to act out of self interest and by using the joint forces of states to combat antagonists. The third, critical theory, takes a revolutionary approach, and strives t

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Institutions have often been accused of being western centric, favoring the policies of the more powerful western countries over the needs of the poor. United Nations development efforts have been characterized by inefficiency, unnecessary duplications, delays, arbitrariness, frequent irrelevance-and as a result of this and compounding the problems, low staff morale.

The Hungarian Revolt of 1956 is an example when, the UN had an opportunity to intervene, not only to save lives, but to free Hungary from the oppressive communist dictatorship of the Soviet Union, however it failed to act in time.

Although the motives of international institutions are to facilitate a world of peace and financial stability, history has proven that they have had difficulty meeting their objectives. The Soviet Union had crushed the Hungarian uprising and had resumed its position of leadership. However, history has shown that these institutions are unable to carry out their goals. o change the structure of politics in order to make cooperation inevitable and create circumstances for lasting peace, (Mearsheimer, p14, 15).

Mearsheimer claims that, although conditions for stability and cooperation have occurred, “cooperation among states has its limits, mainly because it is constrained by the dominating logic of security competition, which no amount of cooperation can eliminate,” (Mearsheimer, p9). Because there are numerous member states responsible for making decisions at the UN, one of its major obstacles is conflict of opinion. Critics agree that institutions, such as the UN, are in desperate need of restructuring in order carry out their goals. It is widely agreed that the United Nations was a monumental failure in Hungary…. Several wars and unlawful invasions of territories took place, namely the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and China, tension between Italy and Ethiopia, the Soviet invasion of Finland and Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland, (Mearsheimer, p33). During the 1920’s and 1930’s the League failed to ease tensions in Europe and other parts of the world. ” (Yeselson and Gaglione,p 31)

At the end of WWI, the League of Nations was introduced by US president Woodrow Wilson, with the aim of preserving world peace. In his article,

Mearsheimer briefly explains the series of events that led to the inevitable collapse of the League of Nations and the preamble to WWII.

Common topics in this essay:
John Mearsheimer, United Nations, WB WTO, League Nations, Yeselson Gaglione, Soviet Union, United Mearsheimer, Bank WB, Woodrow Wilson, Doha Qatar, international institutions, united nations, league nations, united nations development, human rights, yeselson gaglione, carry goals, nations development, effectiveness international, hungarian revolt, effectiveness international institutions, international institutions international, global politics,

Approximate Word count = 1197
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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