Do international organisations matter in times of global crises, and
if so how?

# Reading

## Bank of International Settlements

### Guardian: BIS on interest rates

* potentially a crisis
* a statement on important events
* someone who can say such a thing and has authority on the matter
* still cannot do anything to the banks
* link to cryptocurrency

    BIS was the one global body to point out in advance of the
    financial crash of 2007 that booming asset prices could cause
    problems even during periods of low inflation, and its latest
    warning will be seen as a call for its central bank members to
    start returning monetary policy to more normal settings.

    “Globally, interest rates have been extraordinarily low for an
    exceptionally long time, in nominal and inflation-adjusted terms,
    against any benchmark”, the report said.

    The US Federal Reserve is likely to be the first central bank in any
    major advanced country to raise interest rates. Wall Street expects
    the Fed to tighten policy later this year, with the Bank of England
    forecast to follow in 2016. The European Central Bank and the Bank of
    Japan are currently still using quantitative easing – the creation of
    electronic money – to boost activity.

## Interpol

## United Nations

### NYT: UN on Systemic Racism in Policing

* potential crisis
* will it really achieve anything at all
* reference ted kazyniski : societal issues, cannot be changed

    “It’s a very important step forward,” said Hannah Garry, a law
    professor at the University of Southern California. “I see this
    international mechanism as a precursor to a future commission of
    inquiry.”

### UN on Russian involvement in Africa

* UN supported this action
* UN then found it wasn't such a good thing
* UN still unable to do anything in relation to the matter

    The Kremlin offered to send unarmed military trainers to help
    train the Central African Army in a mission blessed by the United
    Nations, which carved out an exception to the arms embargo on the
    Central African Republic in place since 2013.

    But it quickly became clear that the Russian trainers were in fact
    armed mercenaries, and the operation has evolved into a thinly
    veiled effort to build influence and strike business deals for the
    Kremlin in Africa, including lucrative diamond deals, to the
    benefit of businessmen including a close confidant of President
    Vladimir V. Putin.