Since the end of the Cold War, international organisations have assumed a greater importance on the world stage. The United Nations has played a key role in all of the major security issues during this period - increasingly called upon to address other global problems such as poverty and international crime - while the European Union has created a single currency and moved towards the adoption of a constitution. The growing significance of the World Trade Organisation and other economic institutions has led some to talk of the emergence of a structure of global governance; and international non-governmental organisations and social movements are now widely seen as forming a kind of global civil society that both challenges and participates in these developments.Building on the success of the previous edition (Versailles to Maastricht: International Organisation in the Twentieth Century), this book is a valuable introduction to the complex history of modern international organisation. David Armstrong, Lorna Lloyd and John Redmond:- Pay close attention to the League of Nations, the UN and the EU.- Offer chapters on the new regionalism, global governance and international regimes and global civil society.- Adopt a thematic and analytical approach to the subject.- Provide a concise factual account of the rise of the international organisation.

List of Figures List of Abbreviations Preface The Rise of the International Organisation The League of Nations The American-led, Cold War United Nations: 1945-1960 The Third World UN: 1960-1980 A Period of Crisis: The UN in the 1980s The New World Disorder: The UN and the Maintenance of International Peace The Post-Cold War UN The European Community, 1945-1969: Origins and Beginnings The European Community, 1970-1985: Turbulence, Europessimism and Eurosclerosis Widening at a Cost? The European Community, 1985-1992: From Community to Union Deepening Dominates While Widening Waits? The European Union, 1993-2003: Deepening and Widening? The New Regionalism Towards Global Governance? The Emergence of Global Civil Society Bibliography Index.