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In the last two centuries, most interactions in politics and economics involved the governments of nation-states. Recently, supranational organizations, which draw together representatives from many nations, have been formed to create more effective policy. The cost is that a country loses some sovereignty, or the ability to make its own decision. For example, many European nations have chosen to join the European Union. In order to gain a stronger economy, countries like France and Belgium lose the right to coin their own money and they cannot close their borders to other E.U. citizens. Similarly, states such as Indonesia and Singapore have formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in order to accelerate economic growth and to promote regional peace.
The European Union
The European Union needs no introduction. Over half a century, it has brought political stability and economic prosperity to its citizens. It has created a frontier-free single market and a single currency, the euro. It has reunited a fractured continent. The European Union is a major economic and commercial power and the world’s biggest donor of development aid to poorer countries. Its membership has grown from six to 27 nations, bringing the EU’s population to nearly half a billion.
Not all European countries are, or wish to be, EU members — but the Union welcomes membership applications from any democratic European country. It maintains close and friendly relations with all its neighbours, both in Europe and around the eastern and southern shores of the Mediterranean.
However, the growing nationalist trends of the 2010's has resulted in one of the key member states, Great Britain, deciding to remove itself from the European Union. It provides a near fatal blow to the hope that Europe will be unified into a single, sovereign state that can match the power of the United States or China.
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
OPEC's mission is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers, a steady income to producers and a fair return on capital to those investing in the petroleum industry.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent intergovernmental organization created by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The five Founding Members were later joined by nine other Members: Qatar (1961); Indonesia (1962) -- suspended its membership from January 2009; Socialist Peoples Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973) -- suspended its membership from December 1992-October 2007; Angola (2007); and Gabon (1975–1994).
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