Teaching Comparative

Comparative Politics and International Organizations

International organizations affect and are affected by policies of governments and global economics. Throw in the effects of natural events (weather, earthquakes, and violent storms, for example), and we all should begin to recognize a complex system. When we look at international organizations as part of comparative politics, we must recognize their roles as stimulators and responders. Just like nation states. And, how are international organizations different from nation states? How are they similar? Can we make generalizations about international organizations and their actions?


Here's the beginning of a case study. What else would your students need to consider about OPEC in order to analyze it in a comparative mode? Where will they find it?

• The World News Network?
• The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics?
• WTRG Ecomomics?
• The Saudi Arabia Information Resource?

Or news reports like the one below from The Washington Post.



As OPEC Meets, Fresh Doubts About Its Power

"When the secretary general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries spoke in London in October 2003, he advocated moderation in oil prices, sounding a familiar OPEC theme that extremely high prices could drive off consumers.
'OPEC knows, through both intuition and experience, that it does not operate in a vacuum,' said Alvaro Silva-Calderón, then the secretary general. 'If it wants to sell its oil, then it must attract buyers. And it does not attract buyers by scaring them off, or being unreliable.' He added, 'Producers need consumers and consumers need producers.'...

"At the moment, the only factors reining in production by the group have nothing to do with oil policy. Nigeria's output has been cut by 600,000 barrels a day because of insurgents sabotaging pipelines in the Niger Delta. Iraq's production has been trimmed by about 800,000 barrels a day by the continuing mayhem there. Venezuela, which is busy quarreling with oil workers' unions and foreign oil companies, is falling about 600,000 barrels a day short of what it once produced. If the would-be cartel is holding back, it isn't by grand design.

"And few of the members can boost production immediately -- except Saudi Arabia..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 9:48 AM