The essay is designed to test the students’ critical, analytical and research skills. The essay will require substantial reading and research beyond the course materials and students should allow sufficient time for hunting down library materials, official documents and online sources. This is where you may be able to extend your knowledge and insight into a particular institution or issue area where institutions play a crucial role in the international system. You should consider this to be the avenue for exploration and originality. It is worth 40% of your overall assessment.

There are eight essay questions for you to choose from. You must choose only ONE. The essay is worth 40% of your overall grade. The essay should be 2500 words maximum. You are expected to do your own research for this essay and also rely on the course materials. You must refer to specific International Organisations in your essays.

Your referencing should be strictly Harvard style referencing with page numbers written.

Please let me know which essay question you pick. I prefer question 6 if you can focus on that and I can provide more reading material.

Essay Questions:

2. Are IOs effective? Consider a few examples and discuss.
3. Current debates frame IO change as determined by either the organisation‟s culture OR the IO‟s material relationship with its member states. Which account best explains IO change?
4. Are IOs autonomous actors in international relations? Provide evidence from two cases to back your claims.
5. Can global environmental issues be solved by international organizations? Consider at least one specific global environmental issue (climate change, biodiversity loss, overfishing, deforestation, etc).
6. Are regional organisations a better alternative than universal organizations in furthering states‟ interests?
7. What are the moral and material limits of humanitarian intervention by IO and NGOs?
8. Is cooperation in security as fraught as realists claim? Provide evidence of the operations of one international organization in your answer.