Intergovernmental Organisations Essay

a) Explain how membership of intergovernmental organisations gives some countries political and economic power. (10) Being a member of intergovernmental organisations does give some countries political and economic power. Like figure 4 shows, the USA is part of many intergovernmental organisations and they have the status of a superpower showing there are clear benefits of being a part of IGOs. However, some may argue that countries such as China and India are rising in both political and economic power yet like figure 4 shows, they are barely part of the leading IGOs. Therefore, membership of intergovernmental organisations does give some countries political and economic benefits but there is evidence to show that not being apart of an IGO still allows for development in a countries wealth and political stance. Economically, being a part of the World Trade Organisation like many leading superpowers are (for example, the UK and the USA) does allow for these leading countries to have influence in trade decisions. This means that they can benefit economic decisions to suit themselves. For example, the USA can exploit LDC’s such as Bangladesh by taking more imports for a less expensive price. Furthermore, being a member of the International Monetary Fund means that countries have the voting power to influence the economic policies of other countries. Thus these countries can create friendly policies towards TNCs that are based in their own country, greatly benefiting their own wealth. Additionally, being apart of the EU and NATO in which many of the countries that are part of many IGOs are part of have trade blocs which can cater for the protection of key markets and still help intraregional trade. Therefore it does seem that economic power of a country does improve with the help of being a part of IGOs such as the World Trade Organisation.