Supranationalism & International Alliances - AP Human Geography

The European Union has acheived supranational status because of the power afforded it by their member states, which supercede the powers of its individual states. For example, the European Union has its own currency and mandates trade agreements. The other organizations listed do not have the same degree of power that is afforded to the European Union.

The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement was signed in 1994 and involves the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It is a treaty designed to provide for the mutual economic prosperity of all three nations by eliminating restrictions to trade.

The United Nations was established in 1946, shortly after the end of the Second World War. The United Nations is tasked with preserving peace, deterring conflict, and promoting prosperity and equality in the world. It has a peacekeeping force comprised of forces from its various member states that is often sent to conflicts (particularly civil wars) around the world to try and restore order and peace.

There are fifteen members of the United Nations’ Security Council at any one time. The five permanent members are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. There are ten other positions which are allocated regionally and rotated every two years.

The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed in 1994 between Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The primary goal of the treaty was to eliminate barriers to trade between the three countries and provide mutual advantages designed to encourage growth.

The League of Nations was the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson. In the wake of the Second World War, Wilson published his Fourteen Points designed to preserve peace and order in the world. Part of the Fourteen Points was the proposal for a “League of Nations” that would act as an international arbiter in conflicts and that would enforce peace, prosperity, and freedom of the seas. Wilson gained a great deal of international support, but failed to win the support of his own Congress. Congress, in the United States, has to ratify all treaties signed by the American government. America at the time was decidedly isolationist in nature, and Congress refused to allow the United States to be a member of the League of Nations. As a result, the League continued without the most powerful nation in the world, just one of the many reasons it would prove ineffective during the interwar years.

The League of Nations was established in 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, it was the first attempt at a global organization to prevent conflict and promote peace and prosperity. Obviously, it was ineffective at promoting peace because the Second World War broke out in 1939. The League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations in 1946.

The United Nations was created in the wake of the Second World War and the permanent members of the UN’s Security Council still reflect this time period. The United Kingdom, Russia (then the Soviet Union), France, the United States of America, and China were the victors in the Second World War, and they are the five permanent members of the Security Council. Japan, as one of the losers of the Second World War, is not a permanent member of the Security Council.

The Commonwealth of Independent States is comprised of some of the states of the former Soviet Union. This includes the Russian Federation, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Armenia (as well as a few others). Most of the members of the CIS are part of an economic union and also members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization which is designed to provide for the cooperative defense of all members from external military attacks.

The United Nations is frequently accused of being an undemocratic organization, particularly by countries not found in the western world. This accusation is based on the fact that the powers afforded to the various members vary greatly. There are five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S., Russia, France, the U.K., and China. These five countries have powers above and beyond the powers afforded to the rest of the world, including the ability to veto any proposed security council resolution.

The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in the 1950s by several countries in Western and Northern Europe. The original intention was to marry the economies of Germany and France so heavily that a future outbreak of war between the two countries would lead to economic ruin for both of them. Understood in a post-World War Two context, this decision makes a great deal of sense, as much of the trauma of the past century of European history had been caused by territorial disputes between France and Germany. Over time, more countries joined the European Coal and Steel Community, and its influence grew into the European common market and the European Union.

The European Union was codified in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht. It was signed by twelve nations originally, but has since expanded to include the majority of the European continent. The Treaty of Maastricht created the common economic union of Europe and provided impetus for the creation of a standard currency—the Euro.

NAFTA aimed to create a free trade area between the United States, Mexico, and Canada- including market expansion and integration, and eliminating tariffs between the member states. The U.S. money supply in controlled by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, and unaffected by NAFTA.