Discriminatory Clubs: The Geopolitics of International Organizations

Discriminatory Clubs reveals how international organizations are like social clubs, where geopolitical alignment determines membership and policy coordination, with membership criteria based on alliance ties and shared foreign-policy positions.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 472 pages
Publication date: 18 July 2023
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Member selection is a fundamental aspect of social organization, categorizing individuals based on their identity and activities. Discriminatory Clubs, a book by Christina Davis, explores how international organizations function as exclusive social clubs, where institutional rules and informal practices enable states to favor certain friends while excluding rivals. In contrast to social clubs that may discriminate based on race or socioeconomic status, geopolitical alignment determines who gains access to make decisions about global governance. Davis meticulously analyzes membership provisions for over three hundred organizations to demonstrate the prevalence of club-style selection on the world stage. States join organizations to strengthen their alliances with specific groups of states, often their allies, and to derive benefits from policy coordination. Even organizations that claim to be universal, focused on narrow issues, or covering specific geographic regions employ club-style admission criteria. Davis compellingly shows that geopolitical alignment holds greater significance than the merits or policies of potential members when it comes to the critical decision of cooperation. Through insightful case studies spanning from nineteenth-century Japan to contemporary Palestine and Taiwan, Discriminatory Clubs sheds light on how alliance ties and shared foreign-policy positions form the basis of cooperation for global and regional organizations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union (EU).

Dimension: 235 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691247786