Joining International Organizations

The United States Process

Abstract

This study examines how the United States affiliates with multipartite international organizations, not only by the treaty, but also the executive agreement process. It examines these processes as a legal/political feature of executive-legislative relations, involving nearly 150 international organizations with which the United States has been affiliated since 1945. With few exceptions, Congress has cooperated with the President in developing a variety of techniques for such affiliation, and such coaction is not a post-World War II phenomenon, but began in the 1860s.