International Organizations of the Global South: The Quest for Legitimacy

Abstract

The search for institutional and international legitimacy has been one of the key features of International Organizations, and this is no different for those that emerged as regional organizations of the Global South. This panel assesses the role played by a broad range of these Organizations, including the League of Arab States (LAS), the African Union (AU), the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in legitimating their actions and claiming their relevance as international actors through the use of the language of humanitarianism, human rights, interreegional cooperation and development. By drawing together a variety of issue areas and different bodies the panel highlights the diversity of these processes, the penetration (and localisation) of wider global norms and the importance of structures and initiatives in attempting to collect legitimacy in different forms and from different sources. Ultimately, the aim is to be able to carve out space to enhance the ability of the organisation to function effectively both as a tool of member states and as independent organisations as actors in their own right on both the regional and global stage. By placing these organisations under the spotlight, the panel aims to add to existing literatures on South-South diplomacy and co-operation, to de-centre the focus on IOs dominated by actors from the Global North and to treat these international bodies as more than simply the creatures of the member states. In highlighting the agency of these organisations and examining the multiple constraints that they face we can assess more fully how effective they have been in charting a careful course in attempting to achieve their core objectives. Moreover, we can appraise how the need to gather legitimacy has been central in shaping their strategies, including in leveraging inter and intra regional relationships to this end.

Title	Details
Reaction Norms? Understanding Arab League and GCC Interventionism in the Arab Spring	View Paper Details
Human Rights in the Arab League and CARICOM – Approaching Legitimation Contests in the Global South	View Paper Details
Arab-South American Interregionalism: From the Promises of the ASPA Summit to the Deadlock of the GCC-Mercosur Agreement	View Paper Details
Legitimation by Differentiation: Institutional Overlap between the League of Arab States and the African Union	View Paper Details