This is a definitive and comprehensive history of international organizations from their very beginning at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 up to the present day, and provides the reader with nearly two centuries of world history seen from the perspective of international organizations. It covers the three main fields of international relations: security, economics and the humanitarian domain which often overlap in international organizations. As well as global and intercontinental organizations, the book also covers regional international organizations and international non-governmental organizations in all continents.

The book progresses chronologically but also provides a thematic and geographical coherence so that related developments can be discussed together. A series of detailed tables, figures, charts and information boxes explain the chronologies, structures and relationships of international organizations. There are biographies, histories and analysis of hundreds of international organizations. 

This is an essential reference work with direct relevance to scholars in international relations, international political economy, international economics and business and security studies.

This is a definitive and comprehensive history of international organizations from their very beginning in 1815 up to the present day.

1. International organizations as a cooperation between governments and citizens  2. 1815: the invention of the multilateral conference plus follow-up conference  3. The Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine and burgeoning free trade  4. Citizens organizing transnationally  5. The International Red Cross made responsible for the Geneva Convention  6. Arbitration and international law as normative powers  7. The 1899 and 1907 peace conferences: the Hague system  8. Creation of public international unions 1865-1914  9. Standardization and intellectual property recognized internationally  10. Regulation of international shipping, railway and road traffic  11. International organizations and continental markets 1860-1910  12. International business  13. Rising international emancipation movements  14. The international foundation of the welfare state  15. World war and the creation of the League of Nations
16. Great powers and collective security during the interwar period  17. The workings of the International Labour Organization  18. The League of Nations’ economic and social activities  19. International cooperation during the Second World War  20. The United Nations: an improved security organization with economic coordination  21. The United Nations system  22. Collective security in a bipolar world  23. Regional alliances of the 1940s and 1950s  24. The Bretton Woods institutions and their laborious beginnings   25. Early European economic cooperation  26. Decolonization, anti-apartheid and peaceful coexistence  27. The UN Development Decade: North versus South  28. The G7 undermining the UN system  29. Influence of non-governmental organizations  30. Human rights as normative power  31. Highlighting the Cold War  32. Reagonomics, IMF and economic adjustment  33. The end of the Cold War  34. A new world order and an agenda for peace?  35. From GATT to World Trade Organization  36. Free trade versus environment and the welfare state  37. IMF, IBRD and WTO criticized  38. Continued and new regionalism  39. Harming collective security  40. International Organizations since 1815  Appendix: Nation-states in the international system since 1815