« Taiwan Journal of Political Science No.23Publish: 1970/01

WTO’s Roles in the Cancun Meeting: Interpretations from Main Theories of International Relations

Author: Johnny Chi-chen Chiang

Abstract / Chinese PDF Download

In  order  to  fully  understand  WTO’s  roles  in  the  Cancun  meeting,  the  paperfirst  explores  the  roles  of  international  organizations  in  the  complex  networks  ofinternational  relations  from  theoretical  perspectives  of  realism,  liberalism,  andMarxism. Through these three world views’ understandings and interpretations oninternational organizations, the paper finds out that in the Cancun meeting the WTO,as an intergovernmental organization (IGO), at least played the following roles: asAmerican  hegemony’s  instrument,  as  a  mechanism  for  economic  powers  to  solvecommon  problems  and  seek  interests,  as  a  place  for  members  to  reflect  theirdomestic  political-economic  objectives,  as  a  free  idea  market  without  hegemoniccontrol,  as  an  institutionalized  mechanism  for  inter-state  cooperation,  as  anapproach  for  capitalism  expansion,  as  an  instrument  for  core  countries  to  exploitperipheral  countries,  and  as  a  platform  for  confrontation  between  developed  anddeveloping or less-developed states.As a result, the WTO, as an international organization born of the need frominternational environment, is indeed hard to avoid any influence from internationalrelations and international political economy. In the face of complex environment ofinternational  relations,  realism,  liberalism,  and  Marxism  therefore  can  be  said  toprovide  relatively  systematic  analyses  and  thoughts  for  us  to  understand  WTO’sroles and influences in the Cancun meeting more clearly and comprehensively.

Keywords:Cancun meeting、international organization、liberalism、Marxism、realism、WTO