Peace and the Structure of the International Organization Network

Abstract

The point of departure of this article is a structural definition of peace. It is assumed that the network of international organizations (IGOs and INGOs) is peace-promoting to the extent that it transcends international conflict borders as reflected by the existence of opposing military alliances. The analysis shows that the network of international organizations has a greater transcending capability than several other forms of interaction. It is also assumed that the network's peace-promoting po tential is inversely related to the correlation be tween the number of involvements in international organizations and the degree of economic devel opment. In other words, poor states ought to be more involved in international organizations, to compensate for their low rank on the economic development dimension. Unfortunately, in reality nearly the opposite is the case, although IGOs fare somewhat better than INGOs. In the final section of the article, some suggestions for the improvement of the network of international orga nizations are set forth.