And the World Will Live as One?

Imagine a world where governments never manipulate international organizations to further their individual foreign policy objectives – a world where governments cannot trade money for influence over these international organizations – a world where money and politics never mix on the international stage. Is this world a utopia? Or is it, perhaps, a world with no international organizations at all? It just might be a world with lower levels of global cooperation than the world where we actually live. Perhaps governments participate in institutionalized forms of international cooperation only if they can reap some benefits on the side.

Cooperation requires sacrifice. This is true whether we are talking about collaboration between friends or among nations. Institutionalized cooperation across independent countries requires the sacrifice of at least some degree of national sovereignty. Generally, people make sacrifices only if they can expect some kind of benefit in return.