major supranational organizations

• United Nations (UN)

  • established 1945

  • 193 member states

  • mission: peacefully addressing issues facing humanity (eg. peace, security)

  • headquarters: New York City, USA

• North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO)

  • established 1949

  • member states: United States, Iceland, Turkey, most of Western/Central Europe

  • mission: mutual defense of member states

  • headquarters: Brussels, Belgium

• European Union (EU)

  • established 1993

  • 28 member states, primarily located in Western and Central Europe

  • mission: political and economic integration of member states

  • headquarters: Brussels, Belgium

• North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

  • established 1994

  • member states are United States, Canada, Mexico

  • mission: free trade among members

  • headquarters: Washington, D.C., USA; Mexico City, Mexico; Ottawa, Canada

economic supranationalism

• main reason for supranationalist orgs is economics; several states cooperating to work toward economic growth

  • eg. World Trade Organization (WTO), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC)

• transnational corporations have strained sovereignty because they don’t identify with a specific place and can easily move jobs internationally, so the influence by independent states on them is low

• economies of scale significantly impact trade, and many transnational corporations have merged to create larger businesses with fewer competitors

  • this may be accomplished through

    • horizontal integration — mixing of corporations which offer similar products/services (eg. St. Jude/Abbott merger in 2016)

    • vertical integration — mixing of corporations focused on different stages of production (eg. Zara owning the entirety of its supply chain)

• Europe broke down restrictions on travel and trade following WWII to encourage peace; this included decreasing tariffs, creating common laws regarding products, and similar labor policies

  • 2 major acts: formation of the EU (1993) and standardization of the Euro as a common currency (1999)

  • these boosted the European economy, helped European states thrive in the global marketplace

  • inspired the formation of organizations like NAFTA

• economic supranationalism has its downsides as well

  • lower production quality, job transfers to cheaper labor markets, skirting safety/environmental regulations by moving production abroad to countries with fewer/less strict regulations

  • organizations like OPEC have created price cartels to maximize profits at the expense of consumers

other forms of supranationalism

military and strategic supranationalism

• some supranational organizations are used for military and strategic benefit through mutual defense agreements and other forms of international military coordination

supranationalism and the environment

• tension has been created by supranational corporations because they’re often based in more developed countries but production is done in less developed countries → exploitative (less $ for labor, fewer labor laws (may lead to child/forced labor), easy to exploit land/resources)

  • many American workers don’t like jobs moving overseas, but wouldn’t want to work for the wages being given to their counterparts in less developed countries

• some poorer and less developed countries are willing to support environmentally unfriendly facilities for their economic gain, which is costly to the environment and public health but beneficial economically in the short-term

• since LDCs generally have less strict environmental regulations, transnational corporations tend to be major polluters

  • this infects the countries themselves, and neighboring countries

  • the UN tries to prevent this through a few initiatives, to varying degrees of success