Which is and will be the most powerful institution guiding human Essay

Which is and will be the most powerful institution guiding human activity in the next century... the state... the market ... or NGOS and IGOS - Essay Example Why is this so? First, most issues will have continued to be supra-national in nature to which the state is inherently constricted by its territorial boundaries. Hence, there is the increasing need for global governance (UBUNTU Foundation 94). As such, this makes IGOs most in demand, because the very supra-national nature of IGOs enables them to transcend the limitations of the state, while allowing them to act just like the state. In short, IGOs can govern globally. Where the state cannot intervene into the peace and security problem of a neighboring state, IGOs can. As defined, IGOs are created through a constitutive treaty involving two or more nations that come together in good faith for a common issue of interest. They are meant to create a mechanism through which nations of the world could work collaboratively more successfully concerning peace and security, economic and social issues. (Koteen, par. 1-2) Thus unlike NGOs, IGOs, Pease explains, have international legal personali ty. Meaning, IGOs are authorized to act under international law. For example, they can enter into international agreements with other international organizations and states; they can file a case in national courts; and they are also given immunities similar to the state. (6-7) Therefore, IGOs can be as powerful as the state in a much broader framework. Second, the unregulated dominant position of the market in the world economy, as manifested by the pervading powers of transnational and multinational corporations, is perceived not only to have increasingly threatened the sovereignty of nations but also to have caused poverty and to have widened inequality as it polarizes the world between the rich North and the poor South (Lodge and Wilson 9), which to many are enough reasons for violent conflicts to further intensify and for rebellion and terrorism to be justified. Though it may be argued that poverty is not the main cause of terrorism, Von Hippel sustains that there exists a signi ficant relationship between economic vulnerability and radicalism and terrorism (52-53). Suffice it to say therefore that the market, given its greed for profit, tends to exacerbate rather than mitigate violence and insecurity. Given this negative perception of the market, the need for global governance to regulate the market in order to lessen its impact on global economic inequality, consequently lessening possible sources of global insecurity, will become a necessity. Hence, the IGOs will become more influential. In fact, history shows the consistent trend that every after major world conflicts (i.e., Russo-Japanese War, World War I, and World War II), the emergence of IGOs for peace and security sharply increases (Jordan 18). Since the threats of world conflicts, though may no longer be in the form of world war, remains; the necessity for IGOs stands. Third, IGOs have consistently shown their effectiveness not only in finding ways to help resolve interstate conflicts but even in helping nation-state deal with its intractable conflicts (Brahm, par. 1). Hence, the prime usefulness of IGOs rests on their capability to provide states with a forum through which they can sit down and resolve their conflicts – Something that the market and the nation-state have not shown to be capable of. This cited effectiveness of IGOs could be attributed to the very purpose of their creation, which Brahm