5.5 International and Supranational Organizations

• Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all led by military governments after coups, left ECOWAS in January 2025. They had already formed their own Alliance of Sahel States.
• At USMCA's required joint review on 1 July 2026, the United States did not agree to extend the agreement, while Mexico and Canada supported extending it. USMCA stays in force, but it is now reviewed every year, and without an extension it ends in 2036.
• The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020; that's a completed event.

An international organization is a forum where sovereign states cooperate, but each keeps the final say, like the United Nations. A supranational organization has authority above its members: its rules can bind them, and its institutions can make decisions they must follow. Members give up some sovereignty in exchange for benefits like free trade and influence. Bodies like the EU, ECOWAS and the WTO can press members to cut tariffs and open trade, while the IMF and World Bank work through the conditions attached to their loans.

Membership can be used as leverage. ECOWAS has suspended members after coups, and Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe, a human rights organization, in 2022.

The UK held a referendum in June 2016; 51.9% voted to leave. After years of negotiation, the UK left on 31 January 2020, with a transition period through the end of 2020. Leaving returned law-making powers to Parliament and ended free movement of people, but it also created trade barriers with the UK's largest trading partner. Northern Ireland needed special arrangements to avoid a hard border with Ireland, updated in 2023 by the Windsor Framework.

Brexit shows both sides of supranational membership: supporters valued restored sovereignty, while opponents pointed to economic costs and lost influence.