World Organisations

Shown below is a list of some of the world's most renowned international organisations. The list includes political, financial, trade and aid groups, many of which are better known by their acronyms such as NATO or the UN.

A.C.S

The Association of Caribbean States was formed in 1994 in order to develop trade, transportation and tourism within it's twenty five member states.

The association has twelve Caribbean Island member states, six Central American member states and four South American member states, all of whom are represented by each country's head of state at it's association summits.

The association's secretariat building is located in Port of Spain in Trinidad.

AFRICAN UNION

The African Union was established in 2002 between fifty three of Africa's fifty four nations. Morocco did not join the union. The union was formed in order to promote a greater unity and solidarity and to accelerate political and economic integration between it's member states. Heads of state from the member countries meet annually at the union's headquarters based in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia.

ARAB LEAGUE

The Arab League is an organisation of twenty two Arab states from the Middle East and Africa which aim to draw closer relations between it's member states through various educational, cultural and scientific institutions.

The league was formed in Cairo, Egypt in 1945 and it's head quarters are still based there to this day. The organisation has twenty two member states.

APEC

The Asia Pacific Economic co - operative is an economic forum with twenty one member states, or economies, which are situated along the Pacific Rim, that is they all have a coastline on the Pacific Ocean.

The economies are represented by the heads of government of member states, who between them discuss economic growth and other important issues and challenges regarding their countries economies.

The organisation has been in existence since 1989 and it's headquarters are based in Singapore.

ASEAN

The Association of South East Asian Nations was formed in 1967 in order to discuss political and economic issues relevant to the association's member states. The member states are represented by their foreign ministers at the various association summits. The association's ten member states are;

BRUNEI - CAMBODIA - INDONESIA - LAOS - MALAYSIA - MYANMAR - SINGAPORE - THAILAND - PHILIPPINES - VIETNAM.

ASEF

The Asian - Europe Foundation was established in 1997 in order to promote a mutual understanding between the countries of Asia and Europe.

The foundation is based in Singapore and has nineteen Asian member countries and thirty European member countries. The foundation discusses intellectual and cultural issues relevant to each member state.

EUROPEAN UNION

The European Union, more commonly known as the EU and formerly known as the Common Market, is a political, commercial and economic partnership which started life in 1958 as an allied trade group, hence it's former name of common market, by the six founder nations of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

Today the union, which consists of twenty seven member states, has it's headquarters in Brussels in Belgium and currently has members from;

AUSTRIA - BELGIUM - BULGARIA - CROATIA - CYPRUS - CZECH REPUBLIC - DENMARK - ESTONIA - FINLAND - FRANCE - GERMANY - GREECE - HUNGARY - REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - ITALY - LATVIA - LITHUANIA - LUXEMBOURG - MALTA - NETHERLANDS - POLAND - PORTUGAL - ROMANIA - SLOVENIA - SLOVAKIA - SPAIN - SWEDEN - UNITED KINGDOM.

G.8

The G8, or Group of Eight, is an informal forum of eight of the world's ten richest nations (with the exception of China and India).

The forum was created in Paris, France in 1975 and the nations, which are represented by either their heads of state or heads of government, who partake in the G8 summits are;

CANADA - FRANCE - GERMANY - ITALY - JAPAN - RUSSIA - UNITED KINGDOM - UNITED STATES.

G.20

The G20, or Group of Twenty, is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from the world's largest economies, which was formerly established in Berlin Germany in 1999.

Each year the organisation's logo changes to incorporate the year and host country of the event.

The nations, which are represented by their heads of state or heads of government, which partake in the G20 summits are;

ARGENTINA - AUSTRALIA - BRAZIL - CANADA - CHINA - EUROPEAN UNION - FRANCE - GERMANY - INDIA - INDONESIA - ITALY - JAPAN - MEXICO - RUSSIA - SAUDI ARABIA - SOUTH AFRICA - SOUTH KOREA - TURKEY - UNITED KINGDOM - UNITED STATES.

IMF

The International Monetary Fund is a financial organisation which was established in 1944 in order to ensure the stability and balance of global economic growth.

The fund has one hundred and eighty eight member nations and it's headquarters are based in Washington D.C, in the United States.

N.A.T.O

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is an organisation which was created in London, England in 1949. NATO is a forum in which member states can consult together on security issues of a common concern and discuss joint action in addressing them.

The organisation's headquarters are situated in Brussels, Belgium and the organisation has twenty eight members from;

ALBANIA - BELGIUM - CANADA - CROATIA - CZECH REPUBLIC - DENMARK - ESTONIA - FRANCE - GERMANY - GREECE - HUNGARY - ICELAND - ITALY - LATVIA - LITHUANIA - LUXEMBOURG - NETHERLANDS - NORWAY - POLAND - PORTUGAL - ROMANIA - SLOVAKIA - SLOVENIA - SPAIN - TURKEY - UNITED KINGDOM - UNITED STATES.

O.P.E.C

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is an organisation which was created in Baghdad, Iraq in 1960. The organisation is a cartel of oil producers whose mission it is to co-ordinate the buying and selling of oil around the world. The organisation's head office is located in Vienna in Austria and the twelve nations represented by them are;

ALGERIA - ANGOLA - ECUADOR - IRAN - IRAQ - KUWAIT - LIBYA - NIGERIA - QATAR - SAUDI ARABIA - UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - VENEZUELA.

UNASUR

The Union of South American Nations was established in 2005 in order to promote a single trade market and economic, scientific and technical development between it's twelve member states.

The union hopes to establish an open border and free movement of people system like that of the European Union within the coming years.

The union's summits are held between it's member nations heads of state at various locations across the continent of South America.

The union's secretariat building is located in Quito in Ecuador.

French Guiana is the only South American country which is not a member of the union as it is officially a territory of France.

UNITED NATIONS

The United Nations was formed after the end of the Second World War in San Francisco, U.S.A in 1945.It was established as an international assembly in the pursuit of maintaining international peace and promoting co-operation in solving international economic, social and humanitarian problems.From it's original fifty members it now has the membership of all but three of the world's one hundred and ninety five countries. It's headquarters are situated in Manhattan, New York City.

The United Nations use six official languages Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

The United Nations leader is the Secretary General, of which there have been eight to date.

The three countries currently not represented in the United Nations are Kosovo, Taiwan and the Vatican City State.

The union currently runs seventeen specialist agencies.

U.N SECRETARY GENERALS

Tryge Lie. - Norway. - 1946 - 1952.

Dag Hammarskjold. - Sweden. - 1953 - 1961.

U Thant. - Burma. - 1961 - 1972.

Kurt Waldheim. - Austria. - 1972 - 1982.

Javier Perez de Cuellar. - Peru. - 1982 - 1992.

Boutros Boutros Ghal. - Egypt. - 1992 - 1997.

Kofi Annan. - Ghana. - 1997 - 2007.

Ban Ki-Moon. - South Korea. - 2007 - incumbent.

U.N SPECIALIST AGENCIES

F.A.O - Food and Agricultural Organisation.

I.A.E.A - International Atomic Energy Organisation.

I.C.A.O - International Civil Aviation Organisation.

I.F.A.D - International Fund for Agricultural Development.

I.L.O - International Labour Organisation.

I.M.O - International Maritime Organisation.

I.M.F - International Monetary Fund.

I.T.U - International Telecommunications Union.

U.N.I.C.E.F - United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund.

U.N.E.P - United Nations Environmental Program.

U.N.E.S.C.O - United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organisation.

U.N.S.E - United Nations System - wide Earthwatch.

U.N.I.D.O - United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.

U.P.U - Universal Postal Union.

W.B - World Bank.

W.F.P - World Food Program.

W.H.O - World Health Organisation.

W.I.P.O - World Intellectual Property Organisation.

W.M.O - World Meteorological Organisation.

W.T.O - World Tourism Organisation.

W.W.F - World Wildlife Fund for Nature.

W.T.O

The World Trade Organisation was created in 1995 to supervise and liberalise international trade and enforce the global rules of trade.

The organisation's headquarters are situated in Geneva, Switzerland, where they use the three official languages of English, French and Spanish when holding summit talks.

The organisation has a membership of one hundred and fifty three nations, with thirty observers, all of which are hoping for inclusion into the organisation, which can take up to five years to complete.

THE BILDERBERG GROUP

The Bilderberg Group, also known as the Club Bilderberg, is an annual private conference which consists of around one hundred and fifty privately invited guests made up of influential people from the world of finance, industry, education and communications. The group is not a world organisation such as the unions mentioned above, but is instead a meeting of an international group of people which meet to discuss global current affairs in private, where their comments and opinions can't be misconstrued by the media. This has led to several conspiracy theories about the meetings and insistence that the subject matter of them should be allowed into the public domain, which of course the general public are very intrigued by.

The group was initiated by Polish politician Jozef Retingel in 1954, who was concerned about the growing culture of anti Americanism in Western Europe at that time. With the help of the then King of the Netherlands and the King of Belgium, he instigated a meeting between government leaders from both the USA and Europe, in order that there should be a better understanding between them. The meeting was a great success, leading to the conference being organised on an annual basis. Today the meetings, which tend to be on the subjects of politics, economics and defense issues, include heads of states and figures from the world of banking, politics and big business.

The name Bilderberg comes from the Bilderberg Hotel situated in Oosterbrook in the Netherlands where the very first meeting back in 1954 took place.

The group's annual meetings are generally held anywhere within Europe or the United States.

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