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International Organisations

Code: 101095 ECTS Credits: 6
2025/2026
Degree Type Year
Political Science and Public Management OT 3
Political Science and Public Management OT 4
International Relations OB 3

Contact

Name:
Diego Badell Sanchez
Email:
diego.badell@uab.cat

Teachers

Alessandro Demurtas

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


Prerequisites

It is expected that students have basic previous knowledge of International Relations, Contemporary International System and Theories of International Relations.


Objectives and Contextualisation

 The course is structured around three main objectives:

  • To provide an introduction to the general theory of International Organization (IO) and the study of international organizations (IOs) within the framework of contemporary international system, aiming to equip students with a solid conceptual foundation and essential analytical tools.
  • To explore in depth various international organizations with universal, regional, and interregional scope, in order to understand their structure, composition, and operational mechanisms.
  • To analyze how international organizations adopt and implement multilateral initiatives in response to some of the most pressing challenges on the global agenda.

This course does not cover European international organizations, as they are addressed in other subjects within the curriculum.


Competences

    Political Science and Public Management
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Applying theoretical and analytical knowledge of International Relations to practical and professional cases, in particular to the areas of conflict and cooperation between actors.
  • Arguing from different theoretical perspectives.
  • Assess the social, economic and environmental impact when acting in this field of knowledge.
  • Assessing specific distinctive aspects and conceptual and methodological instruments of the different tendencies and analytical approximations of International Relations.
  • Demonstrating good writing skills in different contexts.
  • Demonstrating they know theoretical tendencies and classical and recent analytical approximations of International Relations.
  • Designing data collection techniques, coordinating the information processing and meticulously applying hypothesis verification methods.
  • Develop critical thought and reasoning and be able to communicate them effectively, both in your own language and second or third languages.
  • Develop strategies for autonomous learning.
  • Distinguishing the discipline's main theories and different fields: conceptual developments, theoretical frameworks and theoretical approaches underlying the discipline's knowledge and different areas and sub-areas, as well as their value for the professional practice through concrete cases.
  • Identifying sources of data and conducting bibliographic and documentary searches.
  • Interpreting and applying English texts in an academic way.
  • Make changes to the methods and processes of the area of knowledge to provide innovative responses to the needs and wishes of society.
  • Managing the available time in order to accomplish the established objectives and fulfil the intended task.
  • Producing and planning researches or analytical reports.
  • Realising effective oral presentations that are suited to the audience.
  • Students must be capable of knowing and applying basic terminology in English related to political sciences.
  • Synthesizing and critically analysing information.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Using the main information and documentation techniques (ICT) as an essential tool for the analysis.
  • Working autonomously.
  • Working by using quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques in order to apply them to research processes.
  • Working in teams and networking, particularly in interdisciplinary conditions.
    International Relations
  • Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  • Analyse cases and phenomena in the international sphere and interpret different political texts using contemporary political theories.
  • Analyse the structure and operation of international institutions and organisations (political, economic, military and security, environmental, development and emergency aid) both in the universal and regional spheres, with particular emphasis on the European Union, from either real or simulated cases.
  • Apply quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques in research processes.
  • Identify data sources and carry out rigorous bibliographical and documentary searches.
  • Identify the main theories of international relations and their different fields (international theory, conflicts and security, international politics, etc.) to apply them in professional practice.
  • Make changes to methods and processes in the area of knowledge in order to provide innovative responses to society's needs and demands.
  • Produce and prepare the presentation of intervention reports and/or proposals.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  • Take account of social, economic and environmental impacts when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Use different tools for analysing the contemporary international system and its functional and regional or geographical subsystems.
  • Use metatheoretical data to argue and establish plausible relation of causality and establish ways of validating or rejecting them.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Act with ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights and duties, diversity and democratic values.
  2. Analyse the indicators of sustainability of academic and professional activities in the areas of knowledge, integrating social, economic and environmental dimensions.
  3. Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
  4. Apply different theoretical focuses to the analysis of the international system and its subsystems and international European politics.
  5. Apply different theoretical focuses, with a constructivist approach, to the actions of international organisations.
  6. Apply quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques in research processes.
  7. Applying theoretical and analytical knowledge of International Relations to practical and professional cases, in particular to the areas of conflict and cooperation between actors.
  8. Arguing from different theoretical perspectives.
  9. Assess the social, economic and environmental impact when acting in this field of knowledge.
  10. Assessing specific distinctive aspects and conceptual and methodological instruments of the different tendencies and analytical approximations of International Relations.
  11. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  12. Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
  13. Critically analyse the principles, values and procedures that govern the exercise of the profession.
  14. Critically assessing the impacts of globalization in several areas: safety, environment, human rights, migrations and peace.
  15. Define and relate the main analytical concepts of international relation with the process of European integration.
  16. Demonstrating good writing skills in different contexts.
  17. Demonstrating they know theoretical tendencies and classical and recent analytical approximations of International Relations.
  18. Describing the international order: anarchy versus order, society of states and transnational society.
  19. Describing the main characteristic elements of the international society as a whole (1945-2000).
  20. Designing data collection techniques, coordinating the information processing and meticulously applying hypothesis verification methods.
  21. Develop and acquire deeper historical, theoretical and conceptual knowledge of the origins, external relations and political processes of the European Union (EU).
  22. Develop critical thought and reasoning and be able to communicate them effectively, both in your own language and second or third languages.
  23. Develop strategies for autonomous learning.
  24. Evaluate case studies of change and continuity in the international system, in the main regional subsystems (European, American, Asian) and in the subsystems of economy and security.
  25. Explain the explicit or implicit code of practice of one's own area of knowledge.
  26. Explaining the major approximations to the international relations (realism, transnationalism and structuralism).
  27. Identify and analyse the different information sources on the international relations of the EU.
  28. Identify data sources and carry out rigorous bibliographical and documentary searches.
  29. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  30. Identify the social, economic and environmental implications of academic and professional activities within the area of your own knowledge.
  31. Identifying sources of data and conducting bibliographic and documentary searches.
  32. Interpreting and applying English texts in an academic way.
  33. Make changes to the methods and processes of the area of knowledge to provide innovative responses to the needs and wishes of society.
  34. Managing the available time in order to accomplish the established objectives and fulfil the intended task.
  35. Produce and prepare the presentation of intervention reports and/or proposals.
  36. Producing and planning researches or analytical reports.
  37. Properly using the theory and concepts of international relations (traditions of Hobbesian, Grotian or Kantian thought).
  38. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.
  39. Propose new ways to measure success or failure when implementing ground-breaking proposals or ideas.
  40. Propose projects and actions in accordance with the principles of ethical responsibility and respect for fundamental rights, diversity and democratic values.
  41. Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
  42. Propose viable projects and actions that promote social, economic and environmental benefits.
  43. Propose ways to evaluate projects and actions for improving sustainability.
  44. Realising effective oral presentations that are suited to the audience.
  45. Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  46. Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  47. Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  48. Students must be capable of knowing and applying basic terminology in English related to political sciences.
  49. Students must have and understand knowledge of an area of study built on the basis of general secondary education, and while it relies on some advanced textbooks it also includes some aspects coming from the forefront of its field of study.
  50. Synthesizing and critically analysing information.
  51. Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  52. Understand the process of European political integration in the context of the Cold War.
  53. Use metatheoretical data to argue and establish plausible relation of causality and establish ways of validating or rejecting them.
  54. Use theoretical and meta-theoretical focuses to analyse the impact of globalisation on security, the economy and society on both a transnational and national scale and in different international organisations.
  55. Using the main information and documentation techniques (ICT) as an essential tool for the analysis.
  56. Weigh up the impact of any long- or short-term difficulty, harm or discrimination that could be caused to certain persons or groups by the actions or projects.
  57. Weigh up the risks and opportunities of one's own ideas for improvement and proposals made by others.
  58. Working autonomously.
  59. Working by using quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques in order to apply them to research processes.
  60. Working in teams and networking, particularly in interdisciplinary conditions.

Content

 

I. Theoretical Approaches to International Organizations (IOs)

Topic 1. International Organizations in the contemporary international system

  1. What are International Organizations?
  2. How can we study International Organizations?
  3. Theories of International Organizations
  4. History of International Organizations

II. Public Policy-Making in International Organizations

Topic 2. International Organizations as political systems

  1. Constitutional structure
  2. Institutional structure

Topic 3. Demand and support from actors (Input)

  1. Member States
  2. Administrative staff
  3. Parliamentarians
  4. Interest groups
  5. Epistemic communities

Topic 4. Decision-making in International Organizations

  1. Programmatic decisions
  2. Operational decisions

Topic 5. Outputs of International Organizations

  1. Public policy programs
  2. Operational activities
  3. Policy efficiency

III. Activities of International Organizations

Topic 6. Peace, security and war

  1. Prohibition of force and peacekeeping
  2. Arms control and disarmament
  3. Case study: NATO and the Trump Administration
  4. Case study: Fragmentation of the nuclear non-proliferation regime

Topic 7. Trade, development and finance

  1. International trade
  2. Development
  3. The global financial framework: the International Monetary Fund
  4. Case study: The World Trade Organization and the Appellate Body
  5. Case study: The World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Topic 9. Climate and energy

  1. Climate change
  2. Ozone layer protection
  3. Case study: The UNFCCC and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement
  4. Case study: The International Energy Agency and the International Renewable Energy Agency

Topic 10. Human Rights and Migration

  1. The global human rights framework
  2. The regional human rights framework
  3. Migration and refugees
  4. Case study: The Global Compact for Migration and authoritarian populism

Topic 11. Regional International Organizations

  1. African Union
  2. Arab League
  3. MERCOSUR
  4. ASEAN

Topic 12. Other issues on the international agenda

  1. Health as a global public good
  2. The geopoliticization of technology
  3. Violence against women
  4. The erosion of international law: the International Criminal Court

IV. International Organizations in a Contested International Order

Topic 13. International Organizations in crisis

  1. Birth and dissolution of International Organizations
  2. Different types of existential challenges
  3. Types of responses from International Organizations
  4. Institutional actors' capacities to respond

 

 


Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Debate on obligatory readings and complementary articles 3 0.12 8, 17, 19, 44, 34, 31, 32, 50, 37, 10, 14
Master classes with the use of ICT and group discussion 44 1.76 19, 18, 31, 59, 37, 55, 10, 14
Seminaries on different topics 4 0.16 7, 8, 17, 16, 19, 18, 36, 44, 34, 31, 32, 50, 59, 58, 60, 37, 55, 10, 14
Type: Supervised      
Reading and preparation of texts that will be, respectively, object of control in class 4 0.16 7, 17, 19, 18, 26, 44, 34, 50, 58, 37, 55, 14
Tutorial of beginning of course and comment of works and exams 3 0.12
Writing group work 4 0.16 7, 8, 17, 16, 19, 18, 36, 26, 31, 32, 50, 60, 37, 10, 14
Type: Autonomous      
Study of the syllabus of the subject and complementary readings 72 2.88 8, 17, 18, 34, 31, 32, 50, 58, 37, 55, 10, 14

 

Methodology

 

The student's dedication to this subject is divided into different types of activities, each of the them has a specific weight of work hours. This variety of work forms materializes in differentiated methodologies.

The subject is 6 ECTS credits.

The activities are distributed in:

- Directed activities, which are activities in the classroom with the presence of the professor and may consist of lectures (with the use of ICT and with the possibility of group discussions); in seminars to discuss compulsory readings in smaller groups and sessions more oriented to practical issues in which cases, problems and examples related to the course syllabus will be analyzed. For these sessions there will be mandatory pre-readings announced by the teacher in advance. These activities represent approximately one third of the total work required.

- Supervised activities are those carried out by the student outside the classroom and in accordance with a plan designed and subsequently supervised and evaluated by the professor. The student must read and prepare texts that will be subject to control and evaluation in sessions of seminars and practices; writing of a group work that will be subject to control and evaluation through written and oral presentation in seminar mode; look for documentation on a certain topic related to the international organization (with a guide prepared by the teacher), write a brief report and make a presentation in the classroom. Also, during the course, the student should read short articles and make a comment on the text read, in addition to actively participate in the discussions on the articles. Tutoring and other similar course follow-up activities are also included. These activities represent approximately ten percent of the work required.

- Autonomous activities are  those  carried out by the student on their own and in accordance with the requirements of the subject to overcomeit successfully. They can be basic and complementary readings, study of class notes and / or all activities that complement the training required by the course. These activities represent approximately half of the student's work.

The teaching methodology is adapted to the distribution of work and activities.

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Written exam 50% of the final grade 2 0.08 7, 4, 5, 6, 8, 53, 15, 48, 17, 16, 19, 18, 23, 21, 22, 52, 26, 34, 28, 27, 30, 57, 38, 39, 47, 45, 46, 50, 58, 37, 54, 10, 24, 14
Participation in class, debates, text comments and other activities programmed by the instructor 10% of the final grade 0 0 7, 4, 5, 8, 15, 48, 17, 19, 18, 21, 22, 36, 26, 31, 27, 32, 57, 38, 39, 49, 47, 45, 46, 58, 37, 55, 10, 24, 14
Seminars 20% of the final grade 12 0.48 8, 16, 19, 18, 20, 36, 26, 34, 32, 50, 59, 60, 37, 55, 10, 14
Work group 20% of the final grade 2 0.08 1, 51, 9, 13, 2, 3, 7, 4, 5, 8, 11, 15, 48, 17, 16, 19, 18, 23, 21, 22, 35, 52, 25, 26, 44, 34, 31, 28, 27, 30, 29, 32, 33, 57, 43, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 49, 47, 45, 46, 50, 60, 37, 54, 55, 10, 24, 12, 14, 56

The course assessment will be based on the following components:

  1. Written Exam (50%)
    A written exam covering both theoretical and practical course content will account for 50% of the final grade. A minimum score of 5 out of 10 is required to pass the course. Passing this exam is an essential condition for successfully completing the course.
  2. Group Project and Oral Presentation (20%)
    Students will complete a group research paper and present it orally. This component represents 20% of the final grade and is also mandatory to pass the course, requiring a minimum score of 5 out of 10.
  3. Seminar Activities (20%)
    Students are expected to read, comment and discuss on selected texts following the guidelines provided during the course. These readings will be discussed in seminar format and represent 20% of the final grade.
  4. Class participation (10%)

 

Important Notes:

  • Students who fail the written exam will have the opportunity to retake it on the date scheduled by the Faculty. However, seminar activities and the group project are non-recoverable and cannot be repeated.
  • Failing the written exam (i.e., scoring below 5/10) results in automatic failure of the course, regardless of the grades obtained in other components.
  • Taking part in the written exam automatically excludes students from receiving a "Not Presented" grade.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism is considered a very serious offense. Any instance of plagiarism in an exam, assignment, or activity will result in an automatic score of 0 (zero) for that task.

Comprehensive (Single) Assessment

In accordance with Article 265 of the UAB's academic regulations, students may opt for the single (comprehensive) assessment system. To do so, they must submit a formal request to the Faculty within the deadlines establishedand inform the courseinstructors at the beginning of the semester.

The single assessment will take place on a single date, coinciding with the final or retake exam period. It will consist of:

  • A written exam (50% of the final grade)
  • Responding to seminar questions (30%)
  • An oral exam (20%)

To pass the subject via this modality, students must obtain a minimum overall grade of 5/10. If failed, the student may retake the assessment on the date set by the Faculty for the retake evaluation. Grade reviews follow the same procedure as for continuous assessment.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The use of AI technologies is permitted exclusively for support tasks: proofreading, or translations. Students must clearly identify which sections were generated with this technology, specify the tools used, and include a reflection on how they influenced the process and final outcome of the activity. Lack of transparency in the use of AI in assessable activities will be considered academic dishonesty and may result in a partial or total penalty on the grade for the activity, or greater penalties in serious cases.


Bibliography

 HURD, I. International Organizations. Politics, Law, Practice, (4ª ed.) Cambridge, Cambridge, University Press, 2020. Existeix e-Book.

RITTBERGER,V,  ZANGL, B. KRUCK, A and DIJKSTRA, H. International Organization (3ªed.) Red Globe Press 2019. Existeix e-Book.

 


Software

All activities will be developed according to the Syllabus.


Groups and Languages

Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2025. You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject.

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 English first semester morning-mixed
(TE) Theory 1 English first semester morning-mixed