What is an example of a major IGO?

• A. The World Trade Organization (WTO).
• B. The International Red Cross.
• C. Greenpeace International.
• D. Private sector consortium.

Answer: (A)

Intergovernmental organizations are formal bodies created by treaties among sovereign states to cooperate on shared policy goals and are governed by rules that member governments agree to follow. The World Trade Organization fits this perfectly: it is a treaty-based international organization whose members are governments, and it operates with a formal structure and binding trade rules that shape global commerce. It also has mechanisms like a dispute settlement process that bindingly enforce those rules, underscoring its status as a major IGO.

The other entities don’t fit the intergovernmental model. The International Red Cross is a humanitarian NGO, Greenpeace is a civil society NGO, and a private sector consortium is formed by private actors rather than by governments through an international treaty.