International Organizations

The most important is to capture as much as possible of the range and variety of the world's international organizations. This is obviously a tall order when there are an estimated 75,000 1Os in existence (but probably many more, given the difficulties in recording them all, and the problems arising fromagrecing the definition of an IO). Even so, the chapters that follow contain more than 120 representative examples. At their heart lie the United Nations (UN) and its specialized agencies and programmes, along with many of the most importantnon-UN bodies, such as the World Trade Organization, the North Atlantic TreatyOrganization and the European Union. Care has also been taken to go beyond the biggest intergovernmental organizations, and those based in and dominated by the world's most powerful states, and to look at IOs based in diferent parts of the world. Close attention is also paid to non-state actors, including international non-governmental organizations and multinational enterprises.