Bob Reinalda is Senior Researcher at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and Editor of IO BIO, The Biographical Dictionary of Secretaries-General of International Organizations.
From the Congress of Vienna to Present-Day International Organizations
When did the process of international organization start? It was not in 1945 nor in 1919. Rather, it was the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) that proved to be the relevant turning point in history, when certain conditions allowed a number of European States to set in motion a series of innovations, inventions and learning processes that shaped the core of what we today refer to as international organizations (IOs).