The Reassertion of National Sovereignty

Abstract

International organizations (io s) have repeatedly been challenged in their existence. In this essay, I review arguments about the causes of their decline and survival in existing research. While the majority of research has focused on structural pressures such as geopolitical crises, I argue that io s can also be threatened by member-states reasserting their sovereignty, for example through budget cuts, non-compliance with core norms, obstruction of staff appointments and membership withdrawal. More systematic research is required to investigate when these challenges are more likely to lead to the demise of io s and which factors make io s survive these challenges.

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“…In the pages that precede it is observed that the main players in International Law are State-based Environments; therefore, and on one hand, all of them acknowledge very well the crucial role of State Sovereignty (Hirschmann, 2021). On the other hand, Sovereign States know that i) their very own existence and ii) the legitimacy of their actions depends on the portion of Sovereignty they enjoy, i.e., how much Sovereignty they truly have.…”

“…Yes, Sovereignty (in the purest sense) plays a fundamental role in the existence and liability of the International Organizations (IOs) in a twofold manner: First, the very composition (that is, the existence itself) of the IOs is due by virtue of an ensemble of States that gather each other in order to create a Legal Person that takes part in the International Order, in other words, a combination of Sovereignties with the objective of coordinate a given matter with an international style. Second, those IOs are at the same time, challenged and menaced by the Sovereignty of its Member-States (e.g., through budget cuts 20 , the non-compliance with core norms, obstruction of staff appointments 21 and membership withdrawal (Hirschmann, 2021).…”