The book critically investigates the local impact of international organizations beyond a Western rationale and aims to overcome Eurocentric patterns of analysis. Considering Asian and Western examples, the contributions originate from different disciplines and study areas and discuss a global approach, which has been a blind spot in scholarly research on international organizations until now. Using the 1930s as a historical reference, the contributions question role of international organizations during conflicts, war and crises, gaining insights into their function as peacekeeping forces in the 21st century. While chapter one discusses the historicity of international organizations and the availability of sources, the second chapter deliberates on Eurocentrism and science policy, considering the converging of newly created epistemic communities and old diplomatic elites. Chapter 3 sheds light on international organizations as platforms, expanding the field of research from the diversity of organizations to the patterns of global governance. The final chapter turns to the question of how international organizations invented and introduced new fields of action, pointing to the antithetic role of standardization, the preservation of cultural heritage and the difficulties in reaching a non-Western approach.

Introduction.- Towards a Global History of International Organization.- Part 1: Constructing the Memory of International Organizations.- From the League of Nations to the United Nations: The Continuing Preservation and Development of the Geneva Archives.- Matsuoka Yosuke's Miscalculation at Geneva: A Possible Reconsideration Using JACAR Data.- Part 2: Eurocentrism and Science Policy.- On the Concept of International Organization: Centralization, Hegemonism and Constitutionalism.- Activities and Discourses on International Cultural Relations in Modern Japan: The Making of KBS (Kokusai Bunka Shinko Kai), 1934-53.- International Control of Epidemic Diseases from a Historical and Cultural Perspective.- Part 3: International Organization as a Forum: Turning Local Concerns into Global Issues.- Sino-Japanese Controversies over the Textbook Problem and the League of Nations.- Beyond Empires' Science: Inter-Imperial Pacific Science Network in the 1920s.- Networking through the Y: The Role of YMCA in China's Search for New National Identity and Internationalization.- Part 4: Culture and Standardization: The Multifunctional and Contradictory Use of International Organizations.- Global Governance: From Organizations to Networks or Not?.- New Capitalism, UNESCO and the Re-enchantment of Culture.- Popular Culture and International Cooperation in the 1930s/CIAP and the League of Nations.- Avenues and Confines of Globalizing the Past: UNESCO's International Commission for a "Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind" (1952-1969).