ABSTRACT
As a field of study, international organization has always concerned itself with the same phenomenon: in the words of a classic text (Mower 1931), it is an attempt to describe and explain “how the modern Society of Nations
governs itself.” In that text, the essence of “government” was assumed to comprise the coordination of group activities so as to conduct the public business, and the particular feature distinguishing international government was taken to lie in the necessity that it be consistent with national sovereignty. Few contemporary treatments of international organization differ significantly from this definition.
