Important International Institutions
GS Paper: GS Paper II | Subject: International Relations | Last updated: 2026-06-21
Prelims
(Key facts, data, schemes, laws, organizations — MCQ-ready points)
UNHCR Global Trends 2025 — Refugees (The Hindu, 16-06-2026)
- Global refugees fell ~3% to 4.16 crore in 2025; ~60 lakh (15%) are Palestinian; 1.47 crore returned home (2nd-highest since UNHCR began reporting in 1965) — but often to fragile conditions amid pressure in asylum countries
- Iran & Pakistan tightened policies on Afghans → ~19.5 lakh returned to Afghanistan; Venezuela saw the sharpest rise in refugees; >9 lakh sought asylum in the US (Ukraine the top origin, ~7 lakh); statelessness/citizenship confirmations declined
- UNHCR = UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1950); India is NOT a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention / 1967 Protocol
IORA — Canada Seeks Dialogue-Partner Status (The Hindu, 17-06-2026)
- Canada's application to become a dialogue partner of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) is being examined at the 28th meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials, held in New Delhi (IORA Secretary-General Sanjiv Ranjan)
- Canada cited as a "big maritime power" (long coastline; expertise in maritime safety, security & connectivity) that could benefit member states
- IORA priorities flagged: disaster response & mitigation (climate-change impacts will be "disproportionate" in the Indian Ocean); SG welcomed the prospective US–Iran deal easing 100+ days of Hormuz hostilities
- IORA = 23-member regional grouping (est. 1997) of Indian Ocean littoral states promoting regional cooperation & sustainable development
Group of Seven (G7) — Origins & Evolution (The Hindu, 21-06-2026)
- Birth (1975): amid 1960s US unrest (Vietnam/civil-rights → Johnson's 1964 "Great Society") and the 1973 Yom Kippur war → first oil shock, French President Giscard d'Estaing & West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt convened the first World Economic Summit at Château de Rambouillet (France) with the UK, Italy, Japan, US → the "Group of Six"; Canada joined in 1976 → G7. A forum of industrialised democracies for financial/economic coordination
- Backdrop: rivalled the 1970s New International Economic Order (NIEO) demand by the Global South (G77 + NAM) for reform of the Bretton Woods institutions (World Bank/IMF) — the G7 was, in effect, "Global Economic Governance in favour of the industrialised economies"
- Beyond economics (1980s): coordinated responses to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the Falklands war, the Iran–Iraq war and the Lebanese civil war; in 1990 (Houston summit) it imposed economic pressure on Saddam Hussein over Kuwait — evolving from an economic platform into a strategic mechanism
- G8 era: post-Cold-War it opened to Russia — Gorbachev (1991 London), Yeltsin, and Russia formally joined in 1998 → G8; Russia was expelled in 2014 after annexing Crimea → reverted to G7
- Today: priorities = climate change, pandemic preparedness, energy security, critical minerals, supply-chain resilience; EU is a permanent guest; invitees include India (a perennial guest), Brazil, South Africa, South Korea, Ukraine, UAE, Egypt. The 52nd G7 summit (France, 15–17 June 2026) — where Modi participated — discussed the Ukraine war, the US–Iran deal, global economic imbalances, AI and developing-country debt
- (Note the parallel push to widen the G7 into a "D10" of major democracies — see [india-foreign-policy])
Mains
(Analysis, dimensions, significance, critique, policy angles — for 10/15 mark answers)
- An informal, durable club: unlike the UN, the G7 is a small, informal high-table that lets leaders dissect difficult issues and keep the globalised economic structure intact "without allowing cracks to spread"; it has outlasted the Cold War, the rise of the G20, and Russia's entry/exit
- Legitimacy gap: it began as the industrialised North's answer to the NIEO/G77 demands — a recurring critique that global economic governance is skewed toward the rich democracies; the case for reform/expansion (D10, or absorbing the Global South) versus the G20's stalling momentum
- India's stake: a permanent invitee but not a member; India leverages the platform to voice the Global South ("partnership, not support") while guarding strategic autonomy — must watch the G7→D10 debate that could reshape the plurilateral order
- UPSC angle: plurilateral groupings (G7/G8/G20/proposed D10), NIEO & North–South divide, reform of global economic governance, India's role as a bridge for the Global South