polsc26 2 nineteenth century development
DESCRIPTION
This topic deals with the influence of the Concert of Europe and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to the succeeding international organizations. The importance of the Hague Conferences is included as well.TRANSCRIPT
Nineteenth Century DevelopmentInternational and regional organizations
THE CONCERT OF EUROPE
The Concert
It is an informal arrangement whereby the European powers consulted together at times of crisis
Originated in the wartime alliance against Napoleon
Early ideas that the Concert should be a kind of international government with wide powers of intervention in the domestic affairs of states foundered on the British insistence on the principle of non-government intervention remaining the cornerstone of the international system
The Concert
• It become a significant factor behind the relative absence of conflict amongst the European powers for much of hundred years after the end of Napoleonic wars, with main exception being the period 1854-1871.• Emphasized the need for consultation and
diplomacy before resorting to force helped to prevent conflict up to the spectacular breakdown of the system in 1914
Its components
• Few legislative, administrative, and executive organs• Quadruple Alliance of Austria, Britain, Prussia, and
Russia (with France in 1818)• Agreed to meet on the event of any threat to the ‘repose ’ of
Europe, by which was meant the territorial settlement that had been drawn up in 1814-15 with the aim of a more durable balance of power
• Rules are informal• Includes assertion of special rights and responsibilities
for the great powers
Impact to succeeding IOsThe system Alliance, which declared as the principal
arbiters of Europe’s affairs while simultaneously imposing a far simpler rules regarding precedence, were adopted by
the League Council and the UN Security Council
The Concert took upon itself to confer international legitimacy on states – to determine their very right
to exist as states and presently, it broadens up to the conduct as well as the status of states
The Concert laid the down a number of general norms that affect the internal and external affairs of states• Example: legal principles governing the navigation of international rivers,
injunctions against slave trade, and assertion of the rights of religious minorities
THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Founded by Henri Dunant in 1963 after witnessing the suffering of the wounded and the sicked during the battle of Solferino in 1859
Promotes the creation of national Red Cross societies
Adopted four Geneva Conventions in 1949 covering treatment for the wounded at land and sea, prisoners of was (POWs), and civilians and neutrals
Impact on IOs• The major role of international
non-governmental organisations (INGOs), the ICRC, in both drafting the Conventions and obtaining agreement of governments and military authorities to norms and rules obtained in them• It is due to the ICRC’s constant
sensitivity to the rights of states and to its own need to tread warily and discreetly whenever states might feel those rights to be under threat
HAGUE CONFERENCES
The Hague
Held in 1899 and 1907
Originated from the proposal for disarmament conference by Tsar Nicholas and marked the high point of international arbitration
Most highly attended conferences with delegates from Europe, North and South America, and Asia
Its popularity being a clear response to the interdependence that many now felt to be a crucial factor in international relations
The Hague
States recognized that when dispute arises between two or more nations, the others, without being directly involved, are seriously affected.
• A need for a machinery to be developed for states to submit their disputes for mediation, conciliation or arbitration
The first Conference resulted in the establishment of Permanent Court of Arbitration and some provisions for the use of International Commissions of Inquiry in certain disputes
The second Conference revised the conventions agreed in the first and added ten new ones, mostly concerned with the laws of war
No significant progress was made in the area of disarmament – the original occasion of the Conferences
Major IGOs and IROs in the world outside UN
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