Constructing Effective International Organizations: The International Criminal Court

The various theoretical lenses yield different interpretations of international relations. The realist perspective views the international system as anarchic, with states’ behavior being unrestricted. The liberal perspective emphasizes international organizations, which provide order to the international system and limitations on states’ behavior. However, as chapter 7 indicates, constructing effective international organizations is a difficult task. In this exercise, you will consider the positive and negative aspects of one such organization—the International Criminal Court—and provide an analysis of whether or not the ICC is necessary and how such an organization should be designed.

You are a member of the U.S. delegation to the upcoming international conference on the revision of the Rome Treaty which initially created the International Criminal Court and which the United States has refused to sign or ratify. You are an expert on how international organizations work and the obstacles that they face. Your task is to analyze the different arguments for and against the ICC and provide recommendations to the head delegate of the U.S. negotiating team for at least three substantive changes that would make it a more effective international organization, one that the United States would want to join. Be sure to cite all Internet sources appropriately.

• Concepts. Review the arguments for and against the creation of international organizations as presented in chapter 7.
• Gathering Evidence. Collect information about the organization, purpose, and effectiveness of the International Criminal Court and provide an analysis of the organization and suggestions for how it can be more effective. The following Internet sources may be good starting points for your investigation:
  
  www.icc-cpi.int/php/show.php?id=home&l=EN
  www.un.org/law/icc/
  www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/
  www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-311.html
  
• Summarize three key arguments in support of and three key arguments in opposition to the International Criminal Court. Be sure to cite your sources.
• Prepare three recommendations that would help address the objections to the ICC. Consider past arguments for U.S. failure to join the International Criminal Court. Should the United States join the ICC as is? Given your recommendations, should the United States join the ICC at all? If not, why?
• Prepare your memo.