10. Global International Society, Regional International Societies and Regional International Organizations: A Dataset of Primary Institutions

Until recently, the English School of International Relations (ES) has been interested in the operation of norms and institutions regulating the ‘society of states’ at the global level. In the last years, however, a new regional focus has marked its research agenda, asking questions on what norms, rules and institutions operate in different regions and whether they mirror those at the global level or are different from them. Yet, in this regional turn, there has so far been a blind spot, namely, the role of regional international organizations in ‘localizing’ global norms and institutions in their regional domain. This chapter presents and interprets the results of the dataset compiled by Barry Buzan and Altin Naz Sunay (English School Primary Institutions and International Organizations, Study of IGO Charters, Section 1:UN Family parts 1 and 3; Section 2: European Intergovernmental Organizations; Section 3: Primary Institutions in the Middle East; Section 4: English School Primary Institutions and Asian Intergovernmental Organizations. Research conducted for Prof. Barry Buzan, Department of International Relations, London School of Economics, 2007) on fundamental institutions and regional organizations with the intention to fill this gap. The initial findings suggest that fundamental institutions are received differently into different regional organizations and different organizations stress different priorities.