Teaching Statehood

Abstract

Scholarship on international organizations (IOs) law is dominated by state-centric, functionalist, and rational choice frameworks, according to which states delegate authority and tasks to IOs which they, acting as the agents of states, may be more or less efficient and faithful in carrying out. The assumptions underpinning these mainstream approaches to international organizations and international organizations law have come under challenge in recent years from variety of disciplinary perspectives. This chapter proposes an alternative framework through which international organizations may be understood, not principally as the creatures and servants of states, but rather as engaged in an enterprise of teaching statehood—and thereby continuously constructing and transforming states.