How did international organizations come into being?

Question

How did international organizations come into being?

Answer 1

International organisations pre-dated the nation state as we know it.

In historic times various empires spanned ethnic boundaries and trade guilds, religious groups and military organisations spread empire wide.  This was particularly apparent in the Roman Empire.  These were not exactly international organizations but formed the pattern from which such organizations later grew.

The Catholic Church started during this period and remains in existance today.  Many church organisations, monastic orders and military orders were international.  Examples are the Knights Templar, Knights Hospitalar of St John (Now the St John's ambulance service) and the inquisition (although this was an arm of the Church) satisfy most definitions of "international organisation".  The use of latin as the language of the church and educated people europe wide also had an internationalizing influence.

From the 10th Century onwards organistions that existed europe wide spread for much of the same reasons as they did under the Roman Empire.  The Nation State as we know it did not really exist in the west at that time and influential people's primary affiliation was to their family, which may have land and interests accross several regions.  The noble families therefore acted much like international factions, even if their central power base was in one region or another.  This had an international influence.  For example, to provide banking services to the major noble families international organisation was required as they had "branches" or territory in different countries and traded internationally.

As trade became more international banks, guilds and support services emerged to service this.  Once again banking was the common starting point.  

Also as certain countries emerged as specialist providers of goods and services their cities started to act as international brokerages for those services or markets.  London, for example became an insurance centre and businesses world wide would insure with syndicates of London merchants through the Lloyd's brokerage.

In the modern sense some of the first International Organisations show their origins in all of the above trends.  Initially they were national campaigns for certain objectives that co-operated internationally, such as the anti-slavery movement.  These were not really international organisations as they did not usually have a single secretariat or organisational structure and were really just national bodies cooperating for the same purposes.

Later these campains became permenant and based in a single organisation. The Red Cross for example was intended to ensure treatment of wounded, then basic rights of prisoners in armed conflict.  It is a good example of a modern single organisation with international presence, founded in 1863.

As the 18th century went by there was an explosion in such organisations    See:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cross#S...

These all showed similar characteristics to what had gone before and were commonly religious (eg, London Missionary Society) scientific or Charitable (eg, Scouts)

Following WWI the number of casualties led to a move to try to resolve differences without armed conflict.  The first attempt at modern international governance was the League of Nations.

Following WWII the United Nations was established with similar intentions.

For a history of NGO's, that is international organisations set up under the auspices of the UN or along similar lines see :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGO